Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus
by weirdbard
Summary: Salmoneus sends a messenger to Xena and Gabrielle to meet with him.  How could they know the terrors such a innocent message would lead to?
1. Chapter 1

**Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus.**

Disclaimers: I don't own the characters of Xena: Warrior Princess or Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I am only borrowing them for some fun. I will put them back when I am done. I promise.

Subtext warning: Yes. This is also a first time story

Timeline: Somewhere between second and third season.

Violence: There is violence in this story on the level of your typical horror movie

Disclaimer: disclaimer. I disclaim anything else that I might have forgotten. Especially the nasty rumor that I have any talent.

Gabrielle darted a quick glance at her traveling companion before returning her gaze to the narrow path in front of her. "Did the messenger give you any idea why Salmoneus wanted to see us, Xena?"

"No Gabrielle. I told you before that the only thing the messenger said was that Salmoneus wanted us to follow this path and meet up with him.

The messenger did say that Salmoneus said that it was not an emergency but that he thought we would like the surprise."

"I wonder what he has gotten himself into this time." Gabrielle said to herself as she glanced back at the following Argo. Gabrielle watched as Argo nervously shied away from the crumbling mountain path's edge and snorted. "I don't think that Argo likes this narrow mountain path and I must say that I agree with her." Gabrielle said as she also moved farther away from the crumbling edge of the path and bumped Xena's shoulder.

"Would you like for me to take the outside part? You can hug the rocky wall for a while." Xena asked as she noticed Gabrielle's nervousness.

"If you don't mind, you know how I hate heights." Gabrielle smiled gratefully. Xena raised Argo's leads up high in the air and Gabrielle passed underneath them behind her. Gabrielle then found herself nearly hugging the rocky wall as she tried to move over as much as she could to give Xena room to avoid the sharp drop off of the twisty path's edge. "Xena wouldn't this be easier if I just went ahead a ways, instead of trying to walk beside you?"

"No. I have never been on this path before and I don't know what might be waiting for us so I want you here beside me." Xena said, allowing herself to enjoy the forced closeness the path provided. Xena took her eyes off of Gabrielle and again looked at the path. She could see that they were quickly coming to a stretch in the path where a rockslide had narrowed the path to a point where only one person could pass at a time. Xena could see that the path made a sharp turn into a cleft in the rocky wall not far from the rockslide. "It looks like you are going to have to go ahead in a moment anyway though." She said with a sigh.

Gabrielle glancing up from where she had been watching where she placed her feet and saw the obstruction that Xena was referring to. "I'll be careful." And with that she quickened her footsteps and passed the rockslide and made the sharp turn in the path. As Gabrielle passed through the cleft in the wall, she found herself in a hidden valley that was surrounded by mountain peaks. Hearing Xena walking up behind her she asked without looking back. "It's beautiful. Isn't it Xena?"

As Xena made the turn, the first sight to greet her was Gabrielle's profile in the afternoon sunlight. Her honey gold hair streaming back from her shoulders in the breeze that was flowing out of the valley through the cleft in the mountain wall.

"Yes Gabrielle, you are very beautiful!" Xena said quietly to herself.

When Gabrielle moved slightly to the side to look back at her, Xena looked past her at the valley. Xena saw that the path wandered into a large meadow of gently waving green grass. The center of the meadow was dominated by a large castle. The path that they were on continued through the fields of grass straight to the castle, along the path's sides were scaffolding spaced every several yards and hanging from the scaffolding were baskets of roses. The castle itself would have been an imposing structure; almost oppressive except someone had went to the trouble of painting it in a bright cheerful garish yellow color.

"I don't know if I would call it beautiful. It's a little gaudy for my tastes but it is all right." Xena said raising her voice to a level that Gabrielle could hear her.

Gabrielle stopped along the path and breathed deeply. "Well what about the roses at least? Don't they smell divine?"

"Well I will agree with you about the roses. Roses are my favorite flowers." Xena said with a large smile as she walked up to stand beside her best friend. Turning to check on Argo she missed the thoughtful look that passed over Gabrielle's face at that news. Gabrielle made a mental note to add roses to a secret scroll that she kept detailing all the things that Xena liked. Gabrielle had started the scroll back when she had first met Xena. At the time it was just a list of things Xena seemed to enjoy that Gabrielle felt that by doing she could keep Xena from sending her home. As time went by and Gabrielle came to realize that Xena was not going to suddenly decide to send her away, the list became a journal detailing all the things that brought a smile to the face that Gabrielle had come to love. Gabrielle always made sure to keep that special scroll well hidden because she thought that if Xena ever found out how she felt about her, that would be the one thing that would make Xena send her away.

"Shall we go to the castle and see who it belongs to?" Gabrielle asked after watching Xena calm the large war-horse for a moment.

"Might as well. This is obviously where Salmoneus wanted to meet with us." Xena said giving a shrug and giving Argo one more pat on the nose and then turned to join Gabrielle in walking toward the castle.

As they walked toward the castle Gabrielle noticed that the path continued to the castle door and then went around the castle, through the valley and exited up a steep mountain path on the opposite side from where they were. She was just about to point this out to Xena and ask her if she thought that it might be an easier way to go when it came time for them to leave. Stopping suddenly in the path, Gabrielle saw what appeared to be off in the distance three people on the other path heading toward the castle. Shading her eyes from the afternoon sunlight, Gabrielle watched for a moment until she was not only certain that there was three people on the other path but that also one of them was a tall person wearing a yellow vest. One of the others was wearing a purple vest and the last looked like he was wearing dark green.

"Xena! Is that Hercules, Iolaus and Autolycus headed this way?" Gabrielle called out to Xena who had walked on a few paces. Xena who had been focused on noting the castle's strengths and weaknesses and had not even realized that Gabrielle had stopped, turned to look first at Gabrielle and then to where she was pointing. Xena shading her eyes in the same manner as Gabrielle watched the trio for a moment and then smiled. "It's them all right."

Reaching the castle Xena and Gabrielle waited at the corner of the building for their friends to reach them. They both saw Hercules wave at them to show that he had seen them but Autolycus and Iolaus seemed to be too busy in an argument to notice them. Xena leaned casually on the wall while Gabrielle stood leaning on her staff. They both smiled when their friends got close enough to hear Autolycus's and Iolaus's argument.

"I still can't believe that you thought you could seduce your way into the temple and steal that golden statue!" Iolaus yelled at Autolycus.

"It was a perfect plan, a temple of women, a king's ransom in gold in the form of a statue. I still don't see how those women resisted my charms." Autolycus said glaring at the smaller man walking beside him.

"It was a temple of Hestian virgins Autolycus! It's their job to resist the 'charms' of males. "Iolaus glared back at the King of Thieves.

Iolaus and Autolycus were so wrapped up in glaring and bickering at each other that they did not even notice when Hercules stopped, rolling his eyes at Xena over the two's argument. They continued to walk and argue and missed seeing Xena and Gabrielle and even the castle. They would have probably continued to walk and argue if they had not heard Gabrielle laughing.

"Xena! Gabrielle! What are you two doing here?" Autolycus asked with a warm smile.

Iolaus was a little more boisterous with his greeting and ran over to Gabrielle and caught her up in a large bear hug and whirled her around. "Gabrielle am I glad to see you! You too of course, Xena." Iolaus added glancing at Xena as he sat Gabrielle back down. Gabrielle blushing and a little flustered by Iolaus's greeting missed the frown that briefly passed over Xena's face.

As the five friends moved toward the front door of the castle, Hercules filled Xena and Gabrielle in on their journey to the castle. "Me and Iolaus received a request by Salmoneus by messenger to come up and see his latest money making scheme."

"Along the way we had to stop and pull you-know-who's butt out of trouble again." Iolaus added with a glare at Autolycus.

Autolycus glared right back at Iolaus. "As if I needed your help to get out of that little misunderstanding." Looking at Xena, Autolycus added. "I would have run into them in any case. Salmoneus sent a messenger to me as well. He told me that he had a way where I could make an honest dinar with my skills."

"I surprised that the idea of honest work appealed to you." Iolaus smirked at Autolycus.

"Salmoneus also had the messenger tell me that what he had in mind would only add to my fame as the 'King of Thieves'." Autolycus finished with his characteristic sweep of his mustache.

Iolaus made a slight groaning noise. "King of Thieves? Does anyone actually call you that except yourself?"

Autolycus glared at Iolaus and replied. "Most people know of my fame. Unlike you, great short sidekick."

Hearing Hercules clearing his throat, Autolycus and Iolaus looked up to see Hercules leaning on the wall near the large castle door with his arms folded. "Are you two done now?"

"Are you done?" Autolycus turned and looked at Iolaus. Iolaus looked back at Autolycus and answered, "I'm done. How about you?" Autolycus turned back to Hercules and replied. 'We're done."

Gabrielle smothered a giggle as Hercules rolled his eyes. "They have been like this the entire trip. As I was saying before I was interrupted. We traveled over a very hazardous path through the mountains and finally reached a small village nestled just at the bottom of those mountains there. The village was totally deserted and looked like it had been that way for a very long time."

"It had one of the largest cemeteries I have ever seen." Iolaus added with a shiver. "Gave me the creeps."

"I was all for exploring the village and see if we could figure out what happened to the people who had lived there but these two overruled me." Hercules added.

Gabrielle who had been half listening, was studying the large front door on the castle. It had obviously at one time had a large door knocker on it but someone had removed it. Gabrielle idly wondered what the knocker had looked like. Noticing that it had gotten quiet, she looked back and saw that everyone was looking at her. "What?" She asked.

Xena shook her head at Gabrielle's not paying attention and said again. "I asked if you were going to knock or just stand there and stare at it all day?"

Gabrielle blushed briefly and raising her staff she knocked on the door.

After a few long moments, they all heard as someone on the inside pulled the locking bolt and the door started to slowly creak open. Gabrielle felt a brief shiver at the mournful noise of the door's hinges and looked inside the entry way that was revealed by the door's opening. Wondering who opened the door, Gabrielle was just about to step inside when Salmoneus suddenly appeared from behind the open door, startling her. "Welcome, welcome my friends! Welcome to the hotel Salmoneus!" Gabrielle studied the image of Salmoneus. He was wearing an oversized purple robe with sleeves so long they covered his hands. The robe had an intricate design done in gold thread on it.

"Come in, come in." Salmoneus said as he ushered them all into the main reception hall.

"What's a hotel?" Iolaus asked as he looked around at the surroundings.

"It's like a tavern, except a tavern is a place along side the road that you stay the night when you are traveling somewhere. A hotel is a place that you go to when you want to be pampered. It is a place that you travel to when you want to get the full royal treatment and relax. And if you can afford it." Salmoneus added under his breath.

Gabrielle noticed a small boy standing beside Salmoneus, who was looking at her with a shy smile.

Salmoneus noticing where she was looking, slapped his head with the heel of his hand. "Where are my manners? This is Termuras. He is the stable hand that will look after the guests' horses when we open. He's great with animals." Salmoneus looked to the open doorway where a curious Argo was peeking in. "Xena is it all right if Termuras takes Argo around back to where the stables are?"

Xena who had been examining the over done entrance to the castle glanced back with a frown but she immediately softened it when she saw the boy patting Argo on the nose.

"Yeah but make sure Argo gets a good rubdown." Xena replied with a smile at the young boy.

"Oh I will ma'am" The boy said enthusiastically as he led Argo off.

"Make sure you bring their stuff to the room I told you about." Salmoneus shouted after Termuras.

Gabrielle smothered a giggle at Xena being addressed as ma'am and joined Xena in looking the place over.

Xena glanced around. "You are going to have to offer something really special to make people want to travel all the way up here to stay the night." She said skeptically.

"Oh I do! I do! I have the best cooks in Greece to prepare food. I have acquired the best in silks and satins to outfit the rooms and I have a totally new concept in beds that I came up with all my own."

"What could you do new with a bed?" Gabrielle asked.

"I'm glad you asked! We might as well start the grand tour with the bedrooms anyway." Salmoneus said as he ushered everyone up the large central staircase. Going down a long corridor, Salmoneus ignored all of the doors until he reached the end of the corridor. Opening the large door at the end, he entered the room and waited for everyone to enter. Throwing his arms wide he said. "What do you think? I am thinking of calling it a sweet."

"Why a sweet?" Gabrielle asked as she examined the room.

"Because the money it's going to make me is going to be sweet." Salmoneus said.

Pointing to the largest bed Gabrielle had ever seen, Salmoneus added proudly. "That's my great invention!"

The bed had its blankets pulled down to the foot and the sheets on the bed were made out of some dark black material that shimmered in the light of the room.

"It's very nice Salmoneus but I hate to tell you, you were not the first person to create a bed." Gabrielle laughed and then leaped on to the bed that was sitting against the back wall of the room.

As soon as Gabrielle landed in the middle of the bed, it started to rock back and forth with a loud sloshing noise. "What the Tartarus!" Gabrielle yelped. Struggling to get out of the bed only made it slosh worse. Gabrielle after a brief struggle to get up, stopped and grabbing her wrist started to frantically apply pressure to her seasick point.

"Calm down and only move slowly!" Salmoneus tried to calm the nearly panic stricken woman.

Xena walked over to the bed and prodded its surface with one finger and watched as ripples radiated out. She stopped when she saw Gabrielle glare at her. "What is this thing anyway?" She asked Salmoneus.

"It's a waterbed. I got the idea one night while traveling. I had a large water bag with me and when I made camp that night I used the bag as a pillow for my head. The water bag had absorbed the heat from the sun and not only did it make an excellent pillow it also kept me warm all night long. I got to thinking that a bed made like this would be really comfortable." Salmoneus finished with pride.

"Comfortable?" Gabrielle squeaked from the center of the bed.

"Relax and slowly move into a laying down position." Salmoneus instructed Gabrielle.

Hercules, Iolaus and Autolycus watched as Gabrielle reluctantly stretched out on the bed and laid flat on her back. "The bed is so warm!" Gabrielle's surprised voice called out. Suddenly a frown appeared on Gabrielle's face. "Salmoneus, why is there a hole in the ceiling over the bed?"

Hercules, Iolaus, Xena and Autolycus all glanced up at the ceiling and saw that Gabrielle was quite right. There was a large rectangle opening above the bed that was open to the sky.

"That's how I heat the waterbed. You open the roof in the mornings. Leave it open so that the sun can shine down on the black silk sheets all day and they help to absorb the heat of the sun. At night you close the opening with this wheel over here." Salmoneus said as he walked over to a small wheel in the wall and started to turn it.

Gabrielle watched as a panel slowly came out of the wall at the head of the bed and started to close off the opening. As the panel closed off the open sky Gabrielle saw that it was mirrored. "Xena why would anyone want a mirror over their bed?"

A slightly smirking Xena looked down at Gabrielle and saw Gabrielle blush deep red as her bard's imagination conjured up reasons why a mirror on the ceiling might be a good idea. "Never mind! I think I figured it out!" Gabrielle to take her mind off of the images running through her mind reached over and pulled the top silk sheet over herself.

"This silk feels so good." Gabrielle said as she ran her hand over the top of the sheet.

"How do I get out of this bed?" She finally asked Salmoneus.

"Turn over very slowly and just ease yourself out of it." Salmoneus said as he finished cranking the ceiling panel open again to catch the rest of the afternoon sunlight.

Gabrielle slowly moving her right leg and arm raised herself to a half upright position on her left elbow. Her red/gold hair fell gracefully over her right shoulder and the black silk sheet started to slide down her body as though it was something alive and it was caressing her gently.

Xena watching, suddenly found herself lightheaded and with a start realized that she had stopped breathing as Gabrielle slowly and unknowingly in a highly sexy manner made her way out of the bed.

Taking a slow steady breath Xena made herself look away from Gabrielle and saw that Iolaus and Autolycus were watching Gabrielle with a dazed look on their faces. Xena clamped down hard on the sudden surge of anger that filled her and unconsciously moved to block the view of Gabrielle from Autolycus and Iolaus and noticed that even Hercules seemed affected by Gabrielle's slow movements on the bed. Hearing a grunt from Gabrielle she looked back and watched as Gabrielle raised herself over the wooden side of the bed and stood up.

"Well it is comfortable as long as you don't move around too much but I would hate to have to get out of it in a hurry!" Gabrielle said as she ran her hand over the silk top sheet one last time. Glancing up she saw that everyone was looking at her. Looking behind her she tried to figure out what they were all looking at. "What?"

Iolaus and Autolycus let out a breath that they did not even realize that they had been holding and glancing at each other for a moment they both made for opposite ends of the room to examine the mirrors and tapestries hanging on the walls.

Gabrielle shaking her head, moved to the far side of the room and examined a full length gold framed mirror that was on the wall. "You must have gotten a great deal on mirrors Salmoneus."

Salmoneus moved from the wheel in the wall that he had used to open the roof panel and walked over to where Gabrielle was examining the mirror. "I did get a great deal on mirrors actually, but that one came with the castle. It's firmly mounted to the wall and can't be moved. I tried, thinking it would look better on that wall over there." Salmoneus said pointing to the wall behind the bed.

"I think the bed has all the mirrors it needs right now." Gabrielle said with a slight smile.

"Hmm? Oh well. Come on friends there is more to show you! The roof, the dinning hall, the kitchens, the library and the mystery room!" Salmoneus said rubbing his hands together.

"Kitchens? A library?" Gabrielle's eyes lit up.

Salmoneus could see in the mirror as Xena walked up behind them with her eyes narrowed. "What's this about a mystery room?"

"All in due time my friends. Come on." Salmoneus said as he turned and made for the door. Gabrielle looked up at Xena and shrugged her shoulders and joined the line of Autolycus, Hercules and Iolaus and followed Salmoneus out of the room. Xena looked at the large mirror in front of her one last time and then turned and followed the rest.


	2. Chapter 2

Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus

Chapter 2

"You just won't believe the view from up here!" Salmoneus said as he finished climbing the last step of the staircase to the roof.

As all of the friends made their way onto the roof of the castle, Xena noted four large cauldrons positioned a few feet away from the edges of the roof, one cauldron for each of the four directions.

"What are they for?" Gabrielle asked Salmoneus pointing at the cauldrons.

"It's another of my ideas. I call them hot tubs. A couple can come up here and soak in the hot water of the tubs and enjoy the view. Just think. Come up here at night and soak in luxuriously hot water by the light of the stars."

Xena gave a loud snort. "This valley at night would be freezing."

"Well that's why the water is heated." Salmoneus said pointing to a stack of wood off in the corner.

"Salmoneus don't try to con me. I used to be an ex-warlord remember? Those 'tubs' were used to heat oil and dump them on people storming the castle."

"Well I don't know what the old residents of this castle used them for but I am using them for hot tubs." Salmoneus said as he turned and made his way toward the staircase leading down into the building.

Autolycus was cautiously looking over the edge of the roof. "Hmm, smooth edges. The walls have no obvious handholds. No place for a grappling hook to catch on to, unless it was able to catch on one of the cauldrons. It might be tricky trying to break into this place." Autolycus did not notice that Iolaus had walked up beside him.

"Is that all you ever think of? How easy will it be to break into some place?"

"Hey! I'm a professional in my field. It's what I do!" Autolycus said as he glared at the smaller man beside him.

Iolaus just shook his head and then said. "Hurry up and let's catch up with Salmoneus. This place is huge and I don't want to get lost here."

"Oh the great hunter admitting that he does not have a good sense of direction?" Autolycus sneered.

Iolaus did not bother to answer him but just went to the staircase where Hercules was already starting down following Salmoneus

Autolycus glanced down the sides of the castle one last time with a thoughtful air and then made to follow them.

Gabrielle looked over the valley one last time. "It is beautiful up here but there's something about this castle that gives me the creeps."

Xena glanced sharply at Gabrielle. "You feel it too? I think it's time that Salmoneus tells us just how and from whom he got this castle. Come on."

Xena searched to find where Gabrielle had gone to. They had stopped and questioned a servant that they had found to find out where Salmoneus and the rest of their friends had gone to after coming down from the roof and while Xena had talked to the servant, Gabrielle wandered off.

Reaching the ground floor Xena heard the sounds of her friends talking from a room off to the side. She smiled when she heard Gabrielle's voice but then frowned when she made out what Gabrielle was saying. "If Xena sees that painting she is going to go into a rage. Where did you get it anyway?"

"It was in the castle when I got here. Who is it of?" Xena could hear Salmoneus ask.

"You don't know who that is?" That was from Autolycus.

Xena made the doorway and stood behind her friends. The room was obviously some kind of meeting room. There was a large wooden table that ran the length of the room and at the end of the room hanging on the wall was a full length portrait painting that everyone was looking at and commenting on. Xena examined the painting from where she stood behind everyone. It was a painting of a bearded man wearing black leather. In one hand he held a bared sword and the other was raised in a fist. Whoever the artist was he caught the smug arrogant look of Ares perfectly. "What is that doing here?" Xena growled startling everyone in the room.

"Xena! You scared the life out of me! As I was just telling Gabrielle, the painting was here when I got here. Would someone please tell me who it is?"

"It is Ares, God of War." Gabrielle quietly said.

"Really? I always thought that Ares would look scarier than that." Salmoneus said studying the painting more closely.

Xena grabbed Salmoneus by the scruff of his robe. "I think it is time you told us where you got this castle from and why did you want us to visit."

"Take it easy on the robe! Its pure silk you know. The reason I wanted you all to visit was because it will be great advertisement for my new hotel. Stay where Hercules, Iolaus, Xena and Gabrielle stayed the night. It should really bring the people in. Don't you think?"

"What am I here for?" Autolycus said, a little miffed because he was not mentioned.

"I am going to pay for you to try and break into some of the rooms. Then I can advertise that my place is so secure that even the 'King of Thieves' had trouble getting into it."

"What makes you think that I would have trouble getting into the rooms here?"

"Enough!" Xena said shaking Salmoneus a little. "How did you get this castle? And from whom did you get it?"

"A business associate told me about this abandoned castle and we talked about how it could be made into a money making concern." Salmoneus squeaked.

"So this business associate must have been a good friend of yours to recommend this castle to you. Right?" Gabrielle asked suspiciously.

"Well it is odd that you mention that. The guy once accused me of cheating him on a deal but he must have decided that he was wrong because he put me on to this great deal." Salmoneus said with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Yeah a great deal. You said something earlier about a library and a mystery room. What did the scrolls in the library have to say? And what is this about a mystery room?" Xena asked the dangling Salmoneus.

"I'm not a scholar so I did not read any of the scrolls in the library but there are dozens of scrolls in there. I will show you the mystery room now if you will put me down?"

Xena sat Salmoneus back on his feet and they all followed him as he lead the way back into the corridor and to a set of double doors that they had not previously entered before. Xena mentally mapping the castle figured that the room was in the exact center of the castle. Salmoneus threw the double doors open wide and with a dramatic gesture said, "Welcome to the mystery room of the hotel Salmoneus!"

As the friends entered the room, they could see that it was completely bare except for a four sided black obelisk sitting in the exact middle of the room surrounded by four large candlesticks in each of the four directions giving off a flickering light. Something about the candles and the light they were giving off made Gabrielle very nervous. Studying them for a moment she realized that all though there were no drafts coming into the room, all of the candles were flickering together in sequence. Placing her hand on her wrist she counted as the candles flared brightly and then dimmed slightly in a pattern.

Autolycus made his way over to the obelisk and was examining it in great detail. It had characters carved into its surface and then had what appeared to be molten gold poured into the letters making them gleam from its dark surface. "I'm surprised that you haven't broken this up and got the gold out of it yet." Autolycus said over his shoulder to Salmoneus.

"It would ruin a perfectly good customer drawing device to damage this magnificent artifact! Besides, I have tried. You can't even chip it with the strongest tools." Salmoneus finished weakly.

"The candles are flickering in time to a heartbeat!" Gabrielle suddenly gasped.

Everyone turned and stared at the candles. Xena concentrated and then nodded. "Yeah, they are flaring as though they were keeping time with a slow heartbeat." Xena reached out and touched one of the chest high candles and then jerked her hand back. "Those candles are ice cold! Where did you get them?"

Salmoneus looked sheepish and then admitted. "They were lit when I got here and they have never shown any signs of burning down any more than they are now."

"And you didn't think this was trifle odd or even possibly dangerous?" Xena asked stunned.

"Well it's not hurting anything and they will make a great tourist attraction." Salmoneus said as he moved away from Xena to stand beside Gabrielle at the door.

"Have you tried to blow out the candles?" Gabrielle asked him.

"Yeah. They don't go out."

"Where is this library you were talking about?"

"Right over here." Salmoneus said as he walked around the obelisk to a small door that was painted the same color as the walls making it nearly invisible.

Opening the door he showed them in. The library had shelves with scrolls sitting on them and was lighted, Gabrielle was glad to see, by normal burning candles in holders on the walls.

Gabrielle smiled as libraries were some of her favorite places to be but then the smile faded. There was something not quite right about this library. All of the libraries that Gabrielle had ever been in all had certain things in common. The dusty smell of leather parchment, the peaceful feeling of quiet solitude, the creamy tan look of the leather scrolls. This library was quiet all right but the smell was all wrong. It had a sour smell that tickled at a memory in Gabrielle's mind but she could not place exactly what it reminded her of. Walking over to a shelf, Gabrielle randomly picked up a scroll and almost dropped it. It did not have the comforting feel of old leather like she expecting. It felt somehow oily and slick. Examing the scroll more closely, Gabrielle could see that it was yellow and cracked in places. Even the rods of the scroll looked odd. They did not have a wooden look to them but more of a gray/yellowish tint to them.

Xena quickly made a round of the room checking for danger and found nothing unusual. "Are you going to be all right in here?" She asked Gabrielle. "I want to take another look at that strange obelisk."

Gabrielle nodded distractedly.

Hercules added. "And I want to take a look at those odd candles."

"Someone should test what Salmoneus said about that gold inside those letters not being able to be dug out." Autolycus added as he turned and went back the way they came in. Salmoneus immediately followed the 'King of Thieves'.

Iolaus looked to where Xena was standing, hesitating at the doorway. "Go on, I'll stay in here with Gabrielle while she reads."

Xena was starting to get nervous. There was an air about that Obelisk that reminded her strongly of Ares but there was only a slight feeling coming from it that Xena associated with Ares presence. If Ares had a hand in creating the obelisk it was a long time ago and Xena had the feeling that Ares had not been in recent contact with it.

Hearing a noise coming from the library that sounded halfway between a sob and a scream, Xena raced past Hercules who was trying without success to pull one of the candles from it's holder and past Autolycus who was trying without success to pry a gold letter from the obelisk into the library.

As she entered the library she could see a obviously upset Gabrielle being comforted by Iolaus. The scroll Gabrielle had been reading was lying on the floor where she had dropped it. As soon as Xena entered the room, Gabrielle quickly moved out of Iolaus's arms into hers. "Oh Xena it's horrible!" She sobbed.

Xena looked over at Iolaus, who just shrugged. "She was reading the scroll and then she dropped it and backed away from it as if it was a deadly snake or something. I asked her what was wrong and she started to cry.

Xena stroked Gabrielle's hair. "It's all right. Tell me what's wrong."

"Those scrolls are made out of people!" Gabrielle sobbed into Xena's shoulders.

"What!"

"The scroll I was reading told how the warlord who lived here used to capture children from a nearby village and then use their skins to make scrolls. I knew that the scrolls had a funny smell to them and as soon as I read that I realized where I had smelled it before." Gabrielle sobbed.

Xena took a strong sniff of the air. "It smells like bodies that have been in a tomb for a long time or an old battlefield." Xena confirmed.

Gabrielle from her place at Xena's shoulder nodded her head.

Iolaus looked at the dozens and dozens of scrolls sitting on their shelves in shock.

"Xena I want to leave here now!" Gabrielle said looking up at Xena's face.

"Gabrielle it's getting late in the day. We would never make it down off of the mountain by nightfall. It's terrible what has been done here but it was a long time ago. Let's just get you out of this room and find you somewhere you can rest for a while."

"Rest? I don't think that I will ever be able to close my eyes again." Gabrielle said with a grimace.

"Come on. You'll be fine. Just put out of your head what you read and forget that this room even exists." Xena said steering Gabrielle toward the doorway.

Hercules, Autolycus and Salmoneus were at the doorway having just arrived.

"What happened?" Salmoneus asked looking at Gabrielle.

"Let's just say that she found something out about your little library here and if you ever hope to get any customers for your hotel Salmoneus, you better hope that it does not get out." Iolaus said as he passed him.

Salmoneus grabbed Iolaus by the arm and Iolaus waited until he saw Xena and Gabrielle leave the room before turning toward Salmoneus. "What is this about something that may keep customers from my hotel?" Salmoneus asked him nervously. Iolaus could see Hercules and Autolycus looking at him curiously over Salmoneus's shoulder.

"Those scrolls in there? They are made out of the skins of children. The previous owner of this castle was a warlord who butchered people and used their skins for the scrolls."

Salmoneus's face went completely white. "I will take the scrolls out and burn them! Or maybe I should give them a decent burial?" Salmoneus turned and gave Hercules a helpless look. "What is the proper way to deal with something like this?"

Hercules who was looking sick to his stomach, just shrugged. "I don't think I have ever heard of something like this before. I'm not sure what would be the proper way of disposing of them."

Autolycus looked around at the flickering candles and through the open door to the library where the scrolls sat on their shelves. "Poor Gabrielle! To find that you are holding and reading something that used to be a person!" Autolycus shuddered. "She's so sensitive and gentle; this will upset her pretty bad!"

Suddenly the four candles around the obelisk flared brilliantly and then faded back to their usual heartbeat rhythm. Autolycus looked around wide eyed at the candles and then turned his attention back to his friends to see the same look on their faces. "Let's get the Tartarus out of this room!" None of the four men ran from the room but the room still quickly emptied. As Hercules who was bringing up the rear left, the double doors swung slowly closed on their own and a deep booming laugh was heard in the now empty room.


	3. Chapter 3

**Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus.**

Chapter 3

Salmoneus stopped by the kitchen to start the servants on cooking dinner, hoping that some good food would shake Gabrielle out of her shock.

Hercules, Iolaus and Autolycus made their way toward the meeting room to find Xena and Gabrielle. Hercules noticed as he entered the room that both Xena and Gabrielle had taken chairs and turned them so that their backs were toward the painting of Ares. Xena was sitting beside Gabrielle gently talking to her while Gabrielle was staring off into space. Every now and then Gabrielle would run her hand on her skirt as though she was trying to wipe the feeling of the scroll off of her hands. The three men took chairs from the table and sat down quietly. They all wanted to comfort Gabrielle but were not sure what they could say to ease the horror from her mind.

Salmoneus entered the room and when he saw how upset Gabrielle still was, he allowed a sad sigh to issue from his mouth. "Gabrielle I had no idea about the library." He started but stopped when he saw Gabrielle wince and Xena glared at him. "Why don't you go upstairs and try and take a nap? You had a long trip to get here and a shock. The rest will do you good. I will have someone wake you when dinner is ready." Salmoneus finished quietly.

Gabrielle continued to stare into space for a moment and then slowly nodded her head. "As long as Xena comes with me, I don't want to be alone right now."

Xena nodded and lead Gabrielle out of the room. "Your room is the one I showed you with the waterbed." Salmoneus called to Xena as she left.

"Now that Gabrielle is gone, let's discuss what we should do about those scrolls." Salmoneus said.

"Now there's a conversation that is sure to instill an appetite." Autolycus muttered to himself.

Xena tucked Gabrielle into the waterbed and turned to leave but was stopped as Gabrielle grabbed her arm. "Please just lay down here with me for a moment, at least until I get to sleep?" She pleaded quietly.

"All right." Xena started to sit down on the bed but then thought better of it. Quickly removing her armor, sword and chakram and placed them beside the bed. She carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and moved slowly until she was in the center so as not to disturb Gabrielle with excess waves. Gabrielle watched her from the far side of the bed where she lay propped up on her side. As soon as Xena made the center of the bed she quickly stretched out to her full length on her back. The fact that Xena was heavier than Gabrielle caused her to sink into the bed and the part that Gabrielle lay on to rise. Gabrielle caught by surprise was thrown slightly and rolled over to land on top of Xena nose to nose. A wide eyed Gabrielle found herself looking into Xena's deep deep blue eyes. "Maybe Salmoneus better equip every waterbed with a users scroll." Seeing Xena's lip quirk slightly into a smile and suffering from nervous exhaustion, Gabrielle started to giggle helplessly. Regaining her composure Gabrielle started to roll off of Xena but stopped when she felt Xena's arm wrap around her waist. "Don't move. You will just cause waves and make yourself seasick."

Gabrielle nodded her head and snuggling against Xena, she quickly fell asleep with her head on Xena's shoulder.

Xena allowed herself a few moments after Gabrielle fell asleep to just lie there enjoying the feel of Gabrielle on top of her. Moving her other hand carefully, she brought it to Gabrielle's head and gently stroked her hair. After a few moments more, Xena decided that she needed to get up and see about getting those scrolls out of that library before Gabrielle woke up, so moving ever so slowly Xena started to inch her way out from under Gabrielle. Reaching the edge of the bed Xena quickly raised Gabrielle up slightly and slid one of the silk clad pillows under her and got out of the bed. Xena allowed herself a little smile of satisfaction on being able to get out from under Gabrielle in a waterbed without causing even the tinniest of ripples to disturb her. Watching Gabrielle clutching the pillow tightly with a smile on her face, Xena was almost tempted to return to the bed and take the place of the pillow but the memory of how upset the scrolls caused Gabrielle helped her to renew her resolve to get rid of them.

Quickly regaining her armor, sword and chakram Xena left the room. Finding a servant working on cleaning the corridor floor outside, she asked him to make sure that no one disturbed Gabrielle until dinner.

On her way to the library Xena passed the meeting room and heard Autolycus and Iolaus arguing and decided to see what was going on. Entering the room she saw Autolycus and Iolaus trying to hang a tapestry on one of the walls. First one of them would raise the tapestry and then the other and then they would argue about who was not holding it up straight.

"Will you please hold it up higher, Shorty?" Autolycus barked at Iolaus.

"It's a tapestry! Tapestries hang on the wall. Not the ceiling oh King of Interior Decorators!" Iolaus barked back.

Xena shaking her head at their antics examined the tapestry. It showed a group of Amazons on a deer hunt. While the detail of the tapestry was amazing, Xena who knew many amazons knew that even though amazons did not generally like to wear a lot of clothing that they would certainly wear more than those in the tapestry on a hunt. Also they were very few amazons that were as well endowed as those in the tapestry.

"Where did you get that tapestry? It's almost obscene." Xena finally asked Iolaus.

"Salmoneus remembered that he had it. He asked us to put it up. He thought maybe it would make Gabrielle feel more comfortable if this was up and we took down Ares painting over there." Iolaus said gesturing to where Ares painting still hung at the end of the room.

"Where are Salmoneus and Hercules anyway?"

"Hercules said that he wanted to take another crack at pulling out one of those candles in Salmoneus's mystery room and Salmoneus went to check on dinner preparations again. He is really miserable about how upset Gabrielle became and hopes that dinner will make it up to her."

Upstairs in the bedroom, Gabrielle was in the middle of a very pleasant dream, where a certain warrior princess was showing her the benefits of silk sheets on a waterbed. The dream had just progressed to the point where Xena was biting and licking her way down Gabrielle's throat when Gabrielle heard a noise coming from the side of the bed. Glancing over she saw a yellowed scroll hoping around on the table beside the bed. Gabrielle thought it odd but right then Xena had reached a particularly great spot on her body and she promptly forgot all about the dancing scroll. Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she saw the scroll fall off of the table and a few seconds later a yellowed, cracked paper thin girl was standing by the bed. "You have to get out of here now before it's too late!" The girl screamed at her.

Gabrielle awoke with a start. Feeling around with her hands she quickly determined that Xena was no longer in bed with her. She started to turn her head to scan the other side of the room when she heard a sound as though something was gently scraping or rubbing. "Xena is just sharpening her sword." She thought to herself. Starting to raise herself up off the bed to turn and look at Xena, Gabrielle felt a sudden sharp pain in the back of her head and darkness rushed to claim her.

"Okay, how's that?" Iolaus said as he stepped back from the wall to look at the now hung tapestry. Xena could see that the side that Iolaus had hung was slightly lower than Autolycus's side but thought that there was no sense in pointing it out. "It's fine." She said as she turned to leave the room. As Xena reached the doorway, she was stopped by the sight of a shaky Hercules being lead in by a worried Salmoneus. Hercules had his hands in front of him staring at them. "What's wrong with Hercules?" She asked Salmoneus.

"I don't know. I was headed to the library to get rid of those scrolls when I found him standing outside of the mystery room staring at his hands like he is now." Iolaus rushed to his friend's side and gently lead him to a chair and sat him down. "What's wrong Herc?"

"I couldn't pull the candles out of their holders! I have moved boulders, I have crushed rocks with these hands but I couldn't move those candles!" Hercules said in a small quiet voice.

Xena looking down at Hercules' hands noticed that they had angry red streaks on them as though they had been burned.

"Did you try and put out the candles with your bare hands?" She asked Hercules.

Hercules gave himself a little shake as though he was coming out of a trance. "No, I got those burns from the candle stick itself. It felt like I was holding on to ice. I could feel it burning my hands but for the life of me I couldn't let go of it. I was determined to pull the candle stick out of its holder and nothing was going to stop me. I must have blacked out. The next thing I remember, I was standing outside the doors to the room staring at my hands and Salmoneus was leading me away from the room."

Xena sat down at the table on one side of Hercules and Iolaus sat on the other side. Autolycus and Salmoneus took seats across the table from them.

"There is something wrong about this place and we need to figure out what and make a plan for dealing with it." Xena stated.

As Gabrielle came to, she had several thoughts rushing through her mind. One: That was not Xena she had heard in the room. Two: She had a splitting headache and three: She was now hanging from a wall by her arms somewhere cold and damp. Keeping her eyes closed so whoever attacked her would not know that she was awake yet, she focused on her other senses to give her information on where she was at. She could hear the sound of dripping water so she figured that she must be somewhere below ground level. She could smell the scent of hot metal and occasionally hear a popping noise of a fire. And she could feel a rough stone wall on her bare butt. "Bare butt!" Gabrielle's eyes snapped open and looking down she saw that she was completely nude. Gabrielle saw that she was hanging from a wall inside a closed jail cell, her toes barely touching the ground.

Looking to her right she could see a pile bones. Gabrielle released a sigh of relief when she realized that they were rat bones but her relief was tempered when she noticed that the bones had human teeth marks on them. Turning her head to look straight forward, she saw a small fire burning several feet away from her in a forge. There were assorted tongs, blades and other tools heating in the fire. Gabrielle gave a nervous gulp and turned her head to the left. She was barely able to stifle a scream when she saw another pile of bones but this pile had a human skull sitting on top of it. The skull showed signs of being gnawed by human teeth as well.

Hearing the noise of the jail cell door opening, Gabrielle jerked her attention back to in front of her. She watched as a hunched figure covered head to toe in a dark hooded outfit entered the jail cell. It stepped slowly around the forge and made its way till it was directly in front of her. Reaching up it pulled the hood back revealing its face. This time Gabrielle was not able to stop her scream.

The creature looked like at one time it had been human but now its skin was a ghastly pale greenish blue color. Its face had a scar running from the top of its head across through its left eye, which was gone leaving nothing but a hideous open socket. The creature's hands had long ragged nails. All in all, it looked like a corpse had crawled out of its grave. Gabrielle could not suppress a shudder as the creature raised it's right hand and started stroking her abs.

"No fat! No fat! You not taste good I bet! Too lean. Too stringy!" The creature hissed hoarsely. As the creature's hand neared Gabrielle's center she wondered if throwing up on it would make it leave her alone.

Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief as the creature reversed the path of its hand and started upward, only to try and draw up and merge into the wall as the creature's hand neared her right breast. Gabrielle relaxed slightly as the creature only skimmed the very outside of her breast and continued to run its hand up to her right arm. She yelped with pain and anger as the creature pinched the skin of her arm cruelly. "Good Skin! Good Skin! Make a fine scroll. You will!" Gabrielle launched a savage kick at her tormentor but was disappointed when the creature nimbly jumped to the side and she missed.

The creature laughed at her and moved over to the forge. "Tools not hot enough yet! Need to be really hot!" The creature hissed angrily. "Bet you make pretty music as skin comes off my pretty little one. Leave now. Be back soon and we begin." The creature cackled as it left the jail cell and slammed it shut behind him.

Gabrielle hung from the shackles and shuddered violently. After a few moments she managed to calm herself. "Xena will find me and rescue me." She thought to herself. Her mind started to paint pictures of what would happen to her if Xena did not find her in time. "However, there is nothing that says that I can't try to get myself out of this one while I wait for Xena to rescue me."

Gabrielle looked up as well as she could and saw that the shackles that were holding her arms up were a single chain passing through a metal ring in the wall above her. Grasping the chain with her left hand she started to pull herself up until her right hand could touch the hair on her head. As her right hand started to search through the braids in her hair, her mind wandered back through her memories.

It had been the first time that she and Xena had met Autolycus, the self styled 'King of Thieves.' While Gabrielle would never admit it to anyone, she had been quite taken with the dashing and charming man and had pestered him with constant questions. All with the explanations that she wanted to get the facts right about his lifestyle for her stories ofcourse. Autolycus, one never to be shy when talking about himself had showed Gabrielle an old lock that he carried with him to practice on. He showed Gabrielle how to use a lock pick and pick the lock. After the demonstration he gave the lock and lock pick to her, more to keep her busy and get some quiet than he thought she would be able to do it. Autolycus was pleasantly surprised when it turned out that Gabrielle was an apt pupil and could pick the lock only taking slightly longer than Autolycus himself. Gabrielle had tried to give the lock and lock pick back to Autolycus but he told her to keep them that they were old ones and he had others. Gabrielle had run to her pack and stuffed the lock in but stopped when she heard Autolycus laugh at her when she started to put the lock pick away. "It will be a very generous jailer that will lock you away with your packs. You need to find somewhere to hide the lock pick so that it will be with you when you need it."

Gabrielle had immediately started examing her clothes to hide the pick but heard Autolycus laugh again. "What if they search you and find the pick?" Gabrielle looked frustrated but then smiled. Reaching up she deftly inserted the pick into one of the braids in her hair. Autolycus smiled and applauded her ingenuity. After that time, Gabrielle always kept the lock pick hidden in her hair. Taking it out when she washed her hair and putting it back in as soon as her hair was dry. It was not so much that Gabrielle ever thought she might need it but that it had become a sort of lucky charm.

"I hope that its luck still holds out for me!" Gabrielle thought to herself as her fingers sifted through her hair. Her left arm started to cramp from holding her weight up and she had inadvertently pulled her hair several times searching for the pick, causing her to utter several curse words that Xena would have been surprised to know that Gabrielle knew.

Finally finding the lock pick in her hair, Gabrielle allowed herself to relax back down until her toes touched the hay strewn floor of the jail cell. Standing on her tip toes, Gabrielle brought her hands together and started working on the shackle on her left hand. Straining on concentrating her focus on the task at hand, like Xena taught her while at the same time trying to relax and let her fingers do the work, like Autolycus taught her. Gabrielle quickly became covered in a thin layer of sweat. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, Gabrielle heard the sweetest sound that she thought she had ever heard in her life, the solid click as the lock opened. Her left arm, now free of the shackle, fell to her side and the chain rattled upward as Gabrielle gratefully sank down to stand fully on her feet. Waiting for a moment to give her arm a chance to get the blood flowing again, she then brought her right arm down as far as the chain would allow and passed the lock pick to her left hand. With a few moments of work, she had the other lock open as well freeing herself! Well free from the wall anyway. She was still locked inside the jail cell.

Walking shakily, she made her way to the cell door and examined its lock. It was large rusty crude looking affair, far too massive for the tiny lock pick in her hand. Carefully reinserting the lock pick back into one of her braids, Gabrielle looked around for something to open the cell door. Walking over to the forge she started to examine the tools that were heating. Finally deciding on a long tweezer affair she walked back to the cell door and inserted in the lock. Working the tweezer back and forth in the lock, Gabrielle's mind wandered and she found herself wondering what task the tweezer was meant for. Her overactive imagination supplied several ideas and with a shudder she refocused her concentration on getting the door open. Finally with a rusty groan the lock gave way and the cell door opened. Stepping through the doorway, Gabrielle thought to herself that Autolycus would have been proud of her.

Beyond the cell, the light from the forge did not carry far so Gabrielle found herself blinking, trying to adjust to the gloom. Stepping forward her toe hit a round object on the floor. Hoping against hope that the object would prove to be her staff, Gabrielle bent down and picked up the object. Bringing it up to her eyes in the gloom, she almost dropped it when she realized that she was holding a human leg bone.

Suddenly a noise from one end of the room drew Gabrielle's attention and she saw a dim outline of a door. As Gabrielle watched, the creature opened the door and entered the room. Seeing Gabrielle free and standing in the middle of the room holding a leg bone, the creature took several steps into the room and planted his legs in a wide stance. Throwing his arms open wide, it hissed, "not often that the pretty ones coming looking for me!" Gabrielle raising the leg bone high and with a yell started to run toward the creature. The creature with a ghastly smile on its misshapen face pulled two wicked looking knives out of its cloak and waited for Gabrielle to reach it.

As Gabrielle reached the creature, she threw herself flat on the floor and sliding on the loose hay on the floor, she slid through the creature's legs and out through the doorway and into the hall. Jumping to her feet she slammed the door shut and jammed the leg bone through the handle and against the door jam, effectively baring the door. In the torch light of the hallway she could see the bone creaking and cracking as the snarling creature on the other side tried to open the door.

Gabrielle raced through the maze of secret corridors and passageways. Several times she found herself in what appeared to be dead ends but with a little searching she always found the hidden switch that opened a section of wall. Finding herself at the base of another upward staircase after going through just such a secret doorway, Gabrielle wondered to herself how many that made so far. "Three or four? And just how do I get out of these secret passages?" After climbing the staircase, Gabrielle found herself at a hallway. To the right lay a well lit passage with torches and to the left lay darkness and cobwebs. Walking a few feet down the dark passage, Gabrielle stopped and decided that the dark passage didn't look to inviting. Turning around, she found herself face to face with 'tall, dark and gruesome'. The creature stood in the middle of the hallway with his arms open wide with a thin line of drool dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

"That is even less inviting!" Gabrielle thought to herself as she turned and ran down the dark corridor through the cobwebs.

Running in the dark Gabrielle hoped that there would be some warning before she ran into a wall or something. Suddenly Gabrielle noticed that it was getting lighter in the corridor and that she could hear faint voices. Reaching the end of the corridor, Gabrielle noticed that one section of the wall was faintly glowing as though the wall was made of some thin material and there was light on the other side. She was just trying to make up her mind on what to do next, when she distinctly heard Xena's voice on the other side. Turning she started to touch the wall when hearing a noise she looked to her left and saw the creature standing next to her. Screaming Xena! Gabrielle leapt at the glowing wall.


	4. Chapter 4

**Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus.**  
Chapter 4

Xena sitting at the table heard Gabrielle's voice yell her name and looked up at the painting of Ares as Gabrielle came hurling through it ripping it into shreds. She barely had time to leap from her seat and catch the falling Gabrielle in her arms. As she caught the falling bard, it hit her that Gabrielle was not wearing any clothing. Looking back at where the painting used to be, Xena saw a deformed creature standing in the dark opening looking at the dirty shaking bard in her arms. The creature leered at Gabrielle for a moment before it pulled its head back into the dark passage and was gone. Two thoughts slammed into Xena's mind.

One: Gabrielle had been in mortal danger and Two: that creature was what was endangering her. Xena turning to her right to sit Gabrielle down and found Autolycus standing beside her with his arms open to take the young woman. Xena threw him a warning look and turned to her left and found Hercules standing there with his arms open too but he had ripped the tapestry down from the wall and had it in his hands to cover Gabrielle. Xena gratefully handed Gabrielle over to him and he quickly covered her naked form. Xena with her war yell leapt onto the table and with a forward flip launched herself into the dark hole where the painting used to be.

"Xena! Wait for me!" Hercules yelled as he gently sat a shivering Gabrielle wrapped in the tapestry on a chair and then climbed up into the secret passage.

A stunned Iolaus, Salmoneus and Autolycus looked dumbfounded at one another for a moment. Autolycus was the first to regain his senses. "Oh yeah Salmoneus! I can see the advertisement for your hotel now. Come to Hotel Salmoneus. Guests are just dying to get in. Hot and cold running maniacs for your convenience."

Salmoneus just frowned at Autolycus while Iolaus rushed to Gabrielle's side.

"Are you okay?" He asked her worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine, dirty, cold and scared but fine." Gabrielle said huddled in the tapestry.

"Uh, that thing didn't, um, hurt you or, um anything did it?" Iolaus asked her awkwardly.

Autolycus immediately dropped to his knees beside Gabrielle's chair and studied her face.

Gabrielle slowly eased her hand out from under the tapestry and patted Iolaus on the hand and then reached over and touched Autolycus on his arm. "I'm really okay guys. That thing was planning on doing some horrible things to me but I got away before it could."

Autolycus let out a breath that he didn't even realize that he was holding. "Whew! Then I have something I have to tell you."

Gabrielle looked at him curiously. "What?"

"You are really filthy." Autolycus said with a grin as he took his finger and wiped a clean stripe down Gabrielle's nose. He looked at the dirt and cobwebs on his finger and said, "Couldn't you find a cleaner way to get away from a hideously deformed maniac?"

This brought a smile to Gabrielle's face. "Sorry I couldn't clean up before I dropped in. Oh, and I ruined Ares portrait too. What a shame."

Iolaus smiled with relief to see Gabrielle joking about her recent danger. "Let's get you upstairs to your room so you can clean up and get dressed."

"Oh I don't know. I think the Amazon Queen is quite fetching in her Amazon tapestry robe." Autolycus said with a smirk.

Gabrielle glanced down at what she was covered with. "Is that what this is? I think I agree with Iolaus. I will feel better after I get cleaned up and dressed."

Autolycus with a low bow, "then let me escort you to your room while Iolaus stays here in case Hercules and Xena get back."

"Oh yeah, like I am going to let you escort Gabrielle back to her room alone while she is undressed? I don't think so!" Iolaus said getting to his feet.

"What? Like you don't think that I can be trusted with Gabrielle? I will have you know that I have known Gabrielle for a long time and think of her as a sister." Autolycus said rising to his feet and facing Iolaus.

Gabrielle watched the two men argue for a moment and then getting to her feet she walked out of the room with as much dignity as an Amazon queen wrapped in a dirty tapestry could.

Autolycus and Iolaus continued to argue for a few moments more, until they realized that Gabrielle had left, and then they both rushed out of the room to catch up with her, glaring at each other all the way. Salmoneus looked around at the wrecked meeting room sadly, until he realized that he was now alone in a room where a maniac had appeared. He then ran out of the room to catch up with Iolaus, Autolycus and Gabrielle.

As Autolycus and Iolaus left the meeting room, they almost ran into Gabrielle standing just outside the doorway tapping her bare foot against the stone floor. "Are you two going to stop acting like a couple of 'fish wives' and stop arguing every two seconds or not?"

"Sorry Gabrielle." A contrite Iolaus said looking guiltily down at the floor.

"Yeah, me too." Autolycus said and then with a grin, "but Shorty here started it!"

Iolaus glanced up sharply at Autolycus for a moment and then grinning and shaking his head he offered him his hand. "Truce?"

"Truce!" Autolycus said grabbing a hold of Iolaus's arm in a warrior hand shake.

"Thank the Gods for that! You two were really starting to get on my nerves!" Gabrielle said with a smile.

Salmoneus picked that moment to run out of the meeting room and slide to a halt. "Thought you might need someone to show you the way back to your room." He said unconvincingly.

As the friends started down the hallway leading to Gabrielle's room they came across the servant that Xena had asked to make sure that Gabrielle would not be disturbed, cleaning the hallway. The servant looked at Gabrielle and then looked back at the door to her room. "I thought your friend said that you were taking a nap? How did you get out here?"

Autolycus pushed to the front and asked the man. "Are you saying that no one has been through that door since Xena talked to you?"

"Xena? That would be the woman dressed in dark leather, carrying the really big sword?"

"Yes."

"No one sir has been in or out since then. I have been working in the hall all this time and I saw no one." The man answered still looking confusedly at Gabrielle. "How did you get so dirty?"

Salmoneus walked past the man to stand at his back and made frantic gestures for Gabrielle to tell him nothing. The man sensing Salmoneus behind him turn and found Salmoneus smiling at him. "She sleepwalks. Yeah that's it. She sleepwalks. Tobas, I know that Melerin and Cheara keep a big cauldron of hot water in the kitchen for cleaning purposes. Would you mind running down and getting a clean bucket of hot water for Gabrielle to get cleaned up with? Oh and some towels?"

Tobas nodded his head. "Yes sir." He shot one more curious look at Gabrielle and the door to her room and then hurried off to the kitchen.

"You should have told him about the maniac that is running loose through the castle Salmoneus!" Gabrielle said to Salmoneus.

"Do you know how hard it is to get good help? Besides, Xena and Hercules went after the creature. I'm sure by now they have it chained up somewhere. Telling the servants about the creature would only scare them and they would leave the castle. Its almost dark and they would never make it off of this mountain safely."

Gabrielle frowned at Salmoneus but said nothing more. Going to the door of her room she entered, quickly followed by Autolycus, Iolaus and Salmoneus.

"What do you think that all of you are doing?" She asked them.

"You heard the man. He said that no one entered or left this room. That means that there must be a secret entrance to this room that Mr. Ugly used to snatch you. We are going to check this room out and not leave you alone." Autolycus said looking around the room.

Gabrielle rolled her eyes but at the same time she was secretly glad that she would not have to be alone in the room.

Gabrielle looking around the room found her favorite top laying on the ground shredded. A few paces further she found her skirt and then her boots. "What am I suppose to do for clothing?"

Salmoneus gestured to a corner of the room. "I had the stable boy bring up Argo's bags."

As Gabrielle went over and retrieved Argo's saddlebags, Autolycus and Iolaus continued to knock on the walls and check behind the tapestries that decorated the room.

Hearing a knock on the door, Salmoneus opened it cautiously and looking out saw Tobas with two large steaming buckets of water and some clean towels under his arm standing there. "I figured that as dirty as the lady was, I ought to bring two buckets." Tobas said as he entered the room and sat the buckets down near the bed.

Over at one of the walls of the room Iolaus yelled out to Autolycus. "I can't figure out how that creature managed to get in here."

"Creature?" Tobas asked, looking up sharply in Iolaus's direction.

Salmoneus quickly placing his arm around Tobas shoulder ushered him to the door. "Iolaus thought he saw a rat in here." He explained as he left with Tobas, shooting an angry look at Iolaus as he shut the door behind him.

Gabrielle looked at the two buckets of hot water and then at Iolaus and Autolycus, who looked back at her. "Well?"

"What?" Iolaus asked.

"Look guys, there is no way that I am going to wash up and then get dressed with you two standing there!" Gabrielle said clutching the tapestry around her a little tighter.

"Now Gabrielle, that creature found a way in here and attacked you. I and Autolycus would not be able to live with ourselves if we were to go outside and he attacked again while you were getting cleaned up." Iolaus said

"Not to mention the fact that Xena would kill us if that happened." Autolycus added.

"We will turn our backs while you bathe and get dressed. Okay?" Iolaus asked her.

Gabrielle looked unsure. Uncomfortable with the thought of them being in there while she bathed but at the same time disliking the idea of being alone in a room where she had been attacked.

"Promise?"

Autolycus put his hand over his heart. "We promise that we won't turn around until you say that it is all right."

Gabrielle reluctantly nodded her head. "Okay then."

Iolaus and Autolycus promptly turned their backs. Iolaus looking down at the ground and Autolycus after turning, found himself facing the full length mirror across the room. He could see Gabrielle clearly reflected in the mirror. He was just about to take a few steps to the side so he couldn't see Gabrielle but just then Gabrielle with her back to them threw off the dirty tapestry that she had been wearing. Autolycus found himself rooted to the spot. His eyes followed Gabrielle's legs until they reached, to Autolycus's mind, one of the best looking butts he had ever seen.

Iolaus glancing over to Autolycus saw a stunned look on his face and looked over to see what he was looking at. When he saw the mirror and Gabrielle's reflection he silently slapped Autolycus on his arm. Autolycus jumped a little and turning his head he mouthed the word, "What?"

"Autolycus!" Iolaus silently mouthed back, gesturing angrily at the mirror.

Autolycus gave one of his best 'I'm innocent' looks and nodded at the mirror as if to say, "how could anyone be expected to resist that."

Iolaus glancing at the mirror again was stunned himself as Gabrielle turning slightly to dip a towel in a bucket of hot water, gave both men a full side view of herself.

Iolaus gulped nervously and mouthed the word, "Wow!"

"Gabrielle had really grown up since the last time he had seen her." He thought to himself.

Both men continued to watch Gabrielle as she quickly washed herself and then washed her hair in the second bucket. At no time did she turn to fully face them but they were quite happy with the back and side views that they got. Pulling out a new top out of the saddlebags to replace the one the creature had ripped to shreds, they could hear Gabrielle muttering to herself about what she would do if she ever got her hands on the creature.

As Gabrielle finished getting dressed and bent over to pick up her staff from beside the bed where it lay, Iolaus reached over and slapped Autolycus's arm again.

Once he had Autolycus's attention, Iolaus placed one hand flat in front of himself and with the other he held two fingers out and placed them on the first hand. Making it look like a person standing, he then turned his hand as if the person was turning around. Iolaus then pointed at the mirror and then at themselves.

Autolycus frowned as he tried to figure out what Iolaus was trying to say and then suddenly he understood that Iolaus was saying that when Gabrielle turned around she would see the mirror and know that they had been watching her. He nodded and together he and Iolaus took several quick steps to the right so that he and Iolaus were no longer in front of the mirror.

Gabrielle straightening up turned around and then frowned. She could have sworn that Autolycus and Iolaus had been closer to her than they now were. Shrugging her shoulders, she called out to them that they could now turn around.

Autolycus turning around smiled real big at her and said. "You clean up real well Gabrielle."

Gabrielle frowned again as she noticed that Iolaus would not look her in the eye and seemed to be blushing slightly. "He must have been as uncomfortable with me bathing in the same room as him as I was." She thought to herself.

Looking across the room Gabrielle's eyes suddenly went wide and she yelled. "The mirror!"

Iolaus gave a guilty little jump and Autolycus just looked in the direction of the mirror and said, "I forgot all about that mirror being there. What about it?"

Gabrielle walking past the two men to stand in front of the mirror said. "You remember what Salmoneus said when I asked him if he got a good deal on mirrors?"

"He said that he did. So?" Iolaus asked as he walked over to stand beside Gabrielle.

Autolycus with realization dawning on his face walked over to stand at her other side said. "But he said that he didn't buy this mirror. That it was already here when he got the place."

Iolaus with a still puzzled look on his face again said. "So?"

Gabrielle replied. "He then said that he had tried to move it to the head of the bed but it was attached to the wall someway and he couldn't move it."

Iolaus, his face finally clearing with understanding said. "The secret way into the room!"

Iolaus started pushing on the mirror to no avail, when Autolycus tapped him on the shoulder.

"Let someone who knows about secret doors and locks give it a try."

Iolaus stepped to the side and leaning on the wall felt a rock at his elbow give way and sink back into the wall.

Suddenly the mirror recessed into the wall slightly and slid open with a metallic hiss.

Iolaus with a smirk walked over to the new opening in the wall and quickly stuck his head in and then pulled it back. "Beginner's luck!" He heard Autolycus mutter under his breath.

"It looks like there is a passage going off toward the right." Iolaus said as he cautiously stuck his head back into the dark opening. Stepping fully into the passage he looked to his left and called out. "There is a shelf to the left with some scrolls.

"Not more scrolls!" Gabrielle muttered unhappily.

"No wait! These scrolls are your normal run of the mill kind made out of leather." Iolaus said as he left the secret doorway and handed one of the scrolls to Gabrielle.

Gabrielle gingerly took the scroll and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that Iolaus was right. It was just a normal old scroll. Opening it, Gabrielle quickly read what was written on it.

"How many more of them are there in there?" She asked Iolaus

"About 6 or 7" He answered.

"Bring them out into the room where I can read them please!" Gabrielle asked him.

A short time later, Gabrielle was sitting on the waterbed surrounded with old scrolls reading while Iolaus and Autolycus debated among themselves whether they should explore the passageway or go back down to the meeting room.

"It all makes sense now!" Gabrielle said in an excited voice as she finished the last scroll.

Hoping off of the bed she ran over to where Iolaus and Autolycus were looking at her. Grabbing their arms she said. "We need to find Hercules and Xena. They have no idea what they are up against!"

As Gabrielle ushered them to the door, Autolycus asked. "What are we up against?"

"I'll explain as soon as we find Hercules and Xena." Gabrielle said pushing them out of the door into the hallway.

As Gabrielle, Autolycus, Iolaus and Salmoneus entered the meeting room they watched as Hercules leapt from the hole where the painting used to be and turned to help Xena down. Xena merely raised one eyebrow and with a forward flip landed beside him. "I still say that my chakram got him that last time! I know that I saw it hit him in the neck!"

"Xena if you had hit him in the neck with your chakram, he would be dead now!" Hercules said reasonably.

"I think that's the problem. He is already dead, well not really alive anyway!" Gabrielle said from the doorway.

Xena turned from where she had been talking to Hercules and with a shout of "Gabrielle!" she ran across the room sweeping Gabrielle up in a huge bear hug. She crushed Gabrielle to her chest so tight, that Autolycus winced in sympathy. Finally releasing Gabrielle from the hug, she held Gabrielle at arm's length and scanned her body from head to toe. "Did that thing hurt you? What did it do to you? What did it try to do?" Xena asked in a barely controlled voice.

"Xena! I'm fine. Really!" Gabrielle said in a voice breathless from Xena's greeting.

"Let's all sit down and I will tell you what happened and what I have found out about the creature." Gabrielle said gesturing at the chairs.

Autolycus noticed that Xena took the chair nearest the secret passage. "Almost like a cat sitting near a mouse hole waiting for the mouse to appear." He thought to himself. He also noticed that even though Gabrielle stayed at Xena's side, she kept as far away from the opening as she could but still be in touching distance of Xena.

Gabrielle told them all about waking up and hearing a noise and then being knocked out. She told them about the dungeon she woke up in and what the creature did. It was at this point that they all heard a loud cracking noise and looked over at Xena to see her holding the broken arm of the chair she was sitting in. She had broken it off when Gabrielle told how the creature had run its hand over her body. Autolycus, from where he was sitting, raised an eyebrow as he watched Gabrielle lightly stroking Xena's hair to calm her down. Looking around the room, he noticed that he was the only one in a position to see that action. To everyone else, it looked only as though Gabrielle had her hand on Xena's shoulder. After a few moments Gabrielle continued with her story. When she got to the part where she picked the lock and escaped, Gabrielle felt her face flush with pride at the smiles she received from Xena and Autolycus.

"I knew that you were an exceptional pupil. If you ever want to stop wandering around with Xena, I could make you the Queen of Thieves." Autolycus boasted.

"Yeah, like she would want to stop traveling with Xena and take up with you? Why would she want to be the Queen of Thieves, when she is already Queen of the Amazons?" Iolaus snorted.

Autolycus just ignored Iolaus and gestured for Gabrielle to continue with her story.

Gabrielle finished her tale about wandering around the maze of secret passages and always finding the creature at her back and how she came to be leaping out of Ares' portrait. She then, for Hercules and Xena's sake, told about going upstairs to clean up and how Iolaus and Autolycus found the secret passage up there. Iolaus felt a slight shiver of fear at the frown that passed over Xena's face hearing that he and Autolycus had stayed in the room while Gabrielle bathed but relaxed slightly as Gabrielle assured her that they had acted like perfect gentlemen. Even though he tried not to, he found himself looking away guiltily when Xena glanced at him with her piercing blue eyes.

Gabrielle reached the point in her story where they had found the scrolls and she read them.

"The scrolls were the personal diary of a warlord named Annilus." Gabrielle paused when she saw a look of recognition pass over Hercules' face.

"We read about him, when I and Iolaus went to the fighting academy, when we were kids. He was supposed to be an unstoppable warrior about 100 years ago. He just disappeared one day and no one knows what happened to him." Hercules said with a frown.

"Well I wish that I didn't but I do now!" Gabrielle said stepping away from Xena's chair slightly. Raising her hands she went into full 'bard mode'.

"Annilus was one of Ares' first chosen ones. He was a brilliant general but also an honorable warrior. He always gave women and children a chance to leave a battle site before he attacked and when he won, which he always did, he would never allow his men to molest or harm the women or children. Even though he was not as blood thirsty as some warlords, Ares treasured him because of his fighting ability and his brilliant strategies. One day Ares decided that sooner or later, Annilus's mortality would overtake him. Even if he never lost in battle, he would die of old age so Ares set out to make Annilus immortal. He wanted a general that would fight for him forever. Unfortunately for Ares, Zeus had decreed that Ares could not use Ambrosia or the fruit of the Tree of Life, to make his immortal warrior. Zeus thought that this would stop Ares and his mad plan but it didn't."

Gabrielle paused for a moment and Salmoneus rushed out of the room, to return in a few moments with a goblet of cider for her to drink.

After taking a deep drink, Gabrielle began again.

"Tricking Athena into letting him study some of her scrolls, Ares read of a philosopher that had a theory on why men died of old age. The philosopher decided that the reason men die is because there bodies are like vases holding their souls. When the vases get old and worn out, holes appear and the soul leaks out causing the body to die. So the philosopher theorized that if you could take the soul out of a man and store it in something more durable, then maybe the man could live forever. Ares decided to test this mortal's theory.

He had a castle built. One that appeared small on the surface but actually was huge underground. With room to house not only Annilus entire army of that day but also the armies that Ares saw in the future. He had the finest miners dig out a rare black stone that was harder than anything ever seen before. Craftsmen worked on it until it was perfectly smooth and then Ares had sorcerers from all across the land inscribe words of power on the stone. He then had enchanted candles made. The candles were to insure that Zeus could not put a stop to his 'eternal warrior'. The candles affect Gods and Demi-gods by drawing the gods into trying to pull the candles out. The longer the god holds on to the candle the more power it draws out of them and uses to feed the soul in the stone!" Gabrielle paused a moment to take a breath. She watched as Hercules looked at his hands.

"Are you saying that this warlord's soul is in the stone in the mystery room?" Salmoneus said with a skeptical look on his face. Suddenly Salmoneus eyes took on a gleam of greed.

"This is perfect! Think of the people who will travel from all over the word to see this ancient artifact of power! Come to Hotel Salmoneus and see the soul stone of Annilus! I'll be rich!" Salmoneus paused for a moment and then asked, "Uh, just one thing. What's this got to do with the creature?"

Gabrielle frowned at Salmoneus and then began to speak again. "Finally the day came. Ares brought Annilus to the castle and told him what he was going to do. Annilus wanted nothing to do with it. He tried to flee. I guess the thought of never-ending battles did not appeal to him. Anyway, Ares caught Annilus and had him put into the room where Xena and I are staying. There Annilus wrote out everything that was happening to him and when he found the secret room that the builders put in. He stored the scrolls there and decided to try and escape again through the secret tunnels. He must not have made it." Gabrielle finished sadly.

Iolaus shook his head. "I must be missing something. What does this have to do with the creature?"

"Iolaus I am surprised at you! Our souls are not just something that keeps us alive. They are also what make us human. Take the soul away and you get, you get, well you get a soulless monster." Gabrielle began to wring her hands.

"The scroll in the library, the one that upset me so much?" Gabrielle asked as she started to pace back and forth. "It tells how something went wrong with the warlord who lived in this castle. How he went from being an honorable man into being a cruel and heartless man. He started to torture woman and children. He became interested in only other people's fear and pain. He lost interest in planning battles and only wanted to cause pain. His men left him and the ones that stayed behind were tortured and killed when he ran out of women and children. It was where the scroll started to list some of the things he had done and it got to the part about skinning children to make scrolls that I could no longer read it." Gabrielle voice started to crack with emotion.

Xena quickly leapt to her feet and put her arm around the woman to comfort her.

Gabrielle after a moment looked up and still saw some confused looks on the men's faces.

"Don't you get it? Ares caught Annilus trying to sneak out. He performed the ritual to take out his soul and store it in the stone. Maybe he rushed the ritual or something, I don't know. But Ares didn't get what he wanted. Oh, Annilus's body would not die but there was nothing of the man left inside either. Instead of a brilliant immortal warrior, Ares got a creature that fed off the fear and pain of others. To give Ares the benefit of the doubt, maybe he tried to stop the creature and found that the safeguards he put in against Zeus stopped him as well." Xena interrupted Gabrielle by snorting loudly at the thought of Ares trying to fix a problem he created.

"Or maybe Ares just gave up in disgust and left the creature to fend for itself. Again, I don't know but that is what we are up against. The creature is the body of Annilus and it can't be stopped until the soul trapped inside the stone is reunited with its body!"

Everyone one remained quiet as they digested the story Gabrielle had just told them. The sudden appearance of the servant Tobas caused them all to jump slightly, even Xena.

Tobas looked around at the obviously nervous people and then glanced at the hole where the painting of Ares used to be. "Um, my Lord Salmoneus? Melerin asked me to tell you folks that dinner is ready. Can I ask what is going on?"

Salmoneus leapt to his feet and putting his arm around Tobas's shoulder he lead the man back to the doorway. "Going on? Nothing is going on! We were just discussing some more rooms that we found behind the painting that was hanging on the wall. It looks like we will be able to house even more guests when we open for business. Go tell Melerin that we will be in for dinner in a moment and that we will dine in the main dinning room."

Tobas looked at Salmoneus with his mouth hanging open slightly. "The main dinning room? You know the one right off of the kitchen?" Salmoneus prompted him.

"Yes my Lord. What is this about new rooms? Will I have to clean them as well?" Tobas asked him as he tried to turn to look back into the meeting room.

"Uh, no! We may have a bit of a rat problem with the new rooms and I don't want anyone going into them until we can get someone to get rid of the rats. Don't worry about it now. Just run along and give Melerin my message.

Tobas looked far from reassured but nodded his head and left.

Salmoneus turned around to find everyone glaring at him.

"What!"

"Salmoneus! You have to tell the servants about the creature and get them out of here!" Gabrielle growled at him.

"Now Gabrielle, we have already discussed this. The servants would just panic and hurt themselves getting off of this mountain in the dark. Let's keep this quiet and Xena and Hercules can get rid of this creature and the servants need never know about it."

Salmoneus looked over at Xena and received a look that should have split stone.

"And what if me and Hercules can't get rid of this creature before one of the servants gets hurt or killed?" Xena said in a low dangerous voice.

Salmoneus edged toward the door with his hands raised in front of him nervously. Reaching the doorway, he dropped his hands in defeat. "All right! Right after we eat dinner we will tell the servants about the creature. And then what? Where can we put the servants where they will be safe until morning?"

"Eat! We need to get them out of here now!" Gabrielle said angrily.

Salmoneus was about to answer Gabrielle when Xena spoke instead. "Gabrielle, in this case Salmoneus is right."

"Of course I am! I am?" Salmoneus asked surprised.

"When we tell the servants about the creature they are going to be frightened and nervous. That is going to make them hard enough to keep them together and safe but frightened, nervous and hungry? They may panic. Besides all of us have gone all day without food. You need to eat something. Especially if we are going to take turns standing guard" Xena explained to Gabrielle.

"We could take all the servants and camp outside the castle in the fields. That way we could see the creature coming from far off!" Iolaus said as he got up and made his way toward the door.

"It gets freezing this far up in the mountains at night Iolaus. The winds howl around this place and there are several young kids working here with their parents. The stable boy and Melerin and Cheara's daughter who helps makes the beds and cleans the rooms. I don't want to take young kids out in weather like that!" Salmoneus pleaded with Iolaus.

"Then we will have to pick a secure room in the castle and stand guard till morning." Gabrielle said as she walked past Salmoneus.


	5. Chapter 5

**Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus.**  
Chapter 5

The dining room was a grand affair of highly polished old wood paneled walls, with a stone fireplace at one end of the room with a roaring fire going. With almost 20 to 25 sconces holding candles, there was plenty of cheerful light in the room. Gabrielle found it hard to believe that such a peaceful looking room could exist where such horror was lurking. There were two doorways into the room, one leading into the dining room from the corridor in the castle and the other leading to a short corridor that lead into the kitchen.

Salmoneus ushered everyone to their seats and then took his seat at the head of the long wooden table. "You are really going to enjoy this meal! Melerin and Cheara are the best cooks to be found." Salmoneus paused and then sighed when he saw the nervous look he was getting from Gabrielle.

Suddenly banging open the door that lead to the kitchen, a very large red faced woman entered carrying a huge platter of roasted meats. Following on her heels was the tallest and thinnest man Gabrielle had ever seen. He was carrying a platter piled high with fruits and cheese.

Gabrielle continued to shoot looks at Salmoneus. Finally Salmoneus looked at the red faced woman. "Cheara, is all the castle staff in the kitchen?"

"Yes Milord. They are all eating their dinner right now. Is there something that you need?" Cheara said with a large friendly smile.

"Yes, please tell the staff to stay together in the kitchen and as soon as we have all finished our meals, I have a very important announcement to make." Salmoneus said.

Cheara looked at him curiously and then nodded her head. As she left the room, the servant named Tobas entered carrying a large wooden tray covered with a cloth. Sitting the tray down in front of Gabrielle he said, "Lord Salmoneus said that you would really appreciate this." Removing the cloth he revealed a huge loaf of nutbread.

Gabrielle managed a smile and told him, "thank you".

As soon as Tobas left the room, Gabrielle turned to Xena. "Xena I'm worried! What if that creature attacks the staff while they are eating?"

Autolycus sitting across from Xena and Gabrielle spoke as he helped himself to a large piece of meat. "So far you are the only person that creature has attacked, Gabrielle."

Iolaus who had been quietly talking with Hercules looked up. "Yeah, I noticed that too! Why do you think he attacked Gabrielle first? I mean Salmoneus has been here for a while setting everything up and his servants have been here all this time as well. Haven't they?"

Salmoneus just nodded his head as he poured himself some wine.

Suddenly Autolycus snapped his fingers. "I got it! Remember when we were in Salmoneus's 'mystery room'? After Xena and Gabrielle left. I made some kind of statement about how sensitive and gentle Gabrielle was and how about finding out what the scrolls were made of would upset her."

Hercules nodded his head. "Yeah, the candles flared up for a moment and then resumed their flickering."

Xena looking very thoughtful glanced at Gabrielle. "That must be when the creature awoke. When he heard that there was a gentle person inside the castle that he could terrorize."

Autolycus looking at Gabrielle, expected to see her become even more scared at hearing that the creature was after her particularly, was surprised when Gabrielle relaxed a little.

"Then the servants are safe? The creature is after only me?" Gabrielle asked.

"I wouldn't rely on that! Remember you told us that the scrolls said he turned on his own men when they were no more women and children to hurt. If it decides that you are too hard to get to, it might try one of the others in the castle." Xena said cautiously.

Gabrielle who had started to eat after hearing that everyone else was safe from the creature suddenly lost her appetite when she heard that the creature might very well attack someone else. Xena noticing reached over with one hand and started rubbing Gabrielle's neck gently. "Please eat Gabrielle. It is going to be a long night and you need food."

Gabrielle nodded at Xena and managed a weak smile. "Okay."

Autolycus watched Gabrielle eat for a moment in peace and then asked her, "Why do you think he took your clothes off upstairs rather than just carry you to the dungeon dressed?"

If looks could kill, the one Xena gave him would have made him one very dead 'King of Thieves'.

Gabrielle smiled slightly showing that the question did not bother her. "I have thought about that and I think it is because the creature feeds on fear and terror. He wanted me, if I should awake before we reached his dungeon, to awaken naked and afraid. I also think that he was hoping that anyone entering my room and finding my clothes ripped apart would be scared and worried."

In the candlelight, no one noticed a muscle twitch on Xena's jaw. Xena did not even want to think about what she would have felt or done if she had entered the room and found Gabrielle gone and her clothes ripped up on the floor.

Xena studying Gabrielle's profile reached over and touched her hand on the table. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine now Xena. The creature caught me off guard and that is not going to happen again. I know that I am safe with you by my side." Gabrielle said softly as she turned and looked deeply into Xena's eyes. After a long moment, Gabrielle glanced at the others at the table. "Along with Hercules, Iolaus, Autolycus and Salmoneus, of course." She added quickly, dropping her gaze back down to her plate on the table.

Xena's heart was racing. Just for a moment she could swear that she saw in Gabrielle's eyes the same desire in Gabrielle that Xena felt for her.

Xena's racing thoughts were interrupted as she heard Iolaus calling her name. "Xena I said do you think that this room would make a good place to keep the servants until morning? I was talking to Hercules and he thinks this is the perfect place to keep watch." Xena looked around and nodded her head.

"Yes this is as good a place as any. Only two doors to watch and if the creature attacks through one, we can use the other to get the servants to safety. There is a fire in here to keep everyone warm and as comfortable as possible." Xena looked over at Autolycus who having finished his meal was pouring himself a goblet of wine. "I want you to check the walls carefully for secret passages and if you find one, point it out to me and Hercules so we can keep an eye on it."

Salmoneus looked up as Cheara entered the room. "Are you all finished with your meal yet? The staff is done and they are waiting for your big announcement."

Salmoneus looked around and saw that everyone was finished with the exception of Gabrielle who had just picked up the last piece of nutbread and was nibbling on it.

"Yes Cheara, I have some unfortunate news and I think that now is the time when I have to tell you all." Salmoneus said with a sad frown.

Cheara looked curiously at him and then went to the doorway to the kitchen and called out to the rest of the staff to enter.

Xena watched as Cheara and the tall thin man who was obviously her husband named Melerin entered and made room for the others to come in. Next in was the servant named Tobas and he was followed by the young stable boy.

Salmoneus waited a moment and then frowned again when no one else entered. "Cheara, where is your daughter. Uhm Megan wasn't it?"

"Yes that's her name. She heard from Tobas how the young lady over there came in dirty and how Tobas fetched a bucket of hot water and some towels for her. She didn't want the young lady to have to return to a dirty room so she rushed upstairs to clean it before the young lady turned in for the night. She'll hear from me later your announcement."

The piece of nutbread fell from Gabrielle's nerveless fingers and hit her plate with a soft plop that could be heard in the suddenly very quiet room.

Gabrielle leapt to her feet and grabbed her staff. "I will go and get Megan, while Salmoneus explains what we're up against!" Gabrielle took two steps before she was stopped by Xena's hand on her shoulder. "We will go and get Megan!" Xena said.

Xena could feel Gabrielle's shoulder muscles quivering under her hand and could see how tightly Gabrielle gripped her staff. "She's scared to death!" Xena thought to herself but whether it was the thought of facing the creature again or that something might have happened to the young girl Megan, Xena couldn't tell.

Grabbing some candles to light their way and with a brief word to Iolaus to watch the corridor and allow no one else to follow them, they left. As they were leaving they could hear the nervous voice of Cheara asking Salmoneus what was going on.

Reaching the stairway Gabrielle started up ahead of Xena. "Gabrielle slow down! Don't rush into the dark without me!"

As Xena and Gabrielle burst into their room, they found that it was well lit by several candles and there was a scrub bucket sitting in the middle of the room but no sign of the young girl Megan. Gabrielle looking toward the mirror on the wall and saw that the secret passage was still open. "Gabrielle did you, Autolycus or Iolaus close the passage after you found it?" Xena asked Gabrielle quickly.

Gabrielle scrunched up her face as she tried to concentrate through the fear. "No! I don't think we did! I was too anxious to find you and Hercules to tell you what we found."

"Then maybe Megan saw it and decided to explore it on her own. The creature may not have found her yet." Xena said as she examined the dust on the floor of the secret passage.

"Find anything?" Gabrielle asked nervously.

"Here are the dragging footsteps of the creature but I think they are from when he grabbed you the first time. And here are Iolaus's footprints here at the doorway. Aha! Here we go!" Xena pointed out to Gabrielle a small boot print near the edge of the wall inside the passage. "Here is where she entered the passage and hugged the wall as she made her way down it."

"Then there is a real chance the creature hasn't found her yet!" Gabrielle breathed a sigh of relief.

"Maybe, but the longer she wanders around down there, the more chances are he will find her. We are going to have to go down and find her before he does and quietly! If the creature hears us calling her name, it will let him know that someone is down there and he knows these passages and we don't."

They made rapid progress with Xena's tracking skills, a scuff on the floor here, a blob of melted wax there. Gabrielle was beginning to feel optimistic about finding the girl before the creature that once was Annilus. That was until they came to an intersection and found the girl's candle laying on the ground and signs of there being a struggle. Even Gabrielle could read the signs that were in the dust of the hallway. The girl had come down the hallway she had been traveling in, hugging the wall closely and must of almost bumped into the creature as it waited in the gloom of the side passage.

Gabrielle said nothing; merely following as Xena lead the way, following the signs in the dust of the girl being dragged along the passage. The tracks lead to a blank wall at the end of a long hallway and showed that there must be a secret door somewhere in the wall. It was Gabrielle who finally found the catch for the door by looking up at the ceiling and noticing a dirty hand print. Using her staff she quickly pressed the catch and opened the door. Stepping through the secret door found Xena and Gabrielle in another short corridor that lead to a wooden door. As they made their way cautiously toward the door, Gabrielle's foot hit something on the floor and holding the candle closely to the floor she made out a broken human leg bone. Drawing Xena down to her height she whispered into her ear, "Xena that is the door to the dungeon, the place where that creature took me. There is the bone that I used to try and bar the door."

Xena nodded her head to show that she had heard and then put her finger to her lips signaling quiet. Creeping quietly to the door they could hear the sounds of a metal blade being sharpened and the whimpering of a very frightened young girl.

Xena fought the urge to whip the door open and charge in yelling her battle cry. Not knowing where the creature was in relation to the girl, it could cause the girl's instant death so she settled for slowly and quietly easing the door open.

Gabrielle, as she and Xena slipped into the room, noticed that the creature had crudely tied some torches to the bars of the jail cell causing more light for the jail but throwing the rest of the dungeon into further gloom. As Xena and Gabrielle inched their way through the darkness of the main dungeon toward the jail cell, Xena used the time to get her first good look at the foul abomination. It had removed its heavy cloak that it had been wearing and was now revealed as wearing clothing like Ares. Black leather pants and vest but while the God of War's leathers were always in perfect condition, the creature's looked like it had seen better days. Ripped, torn and filthy, it barely covered its grayish green body.

Hearing a whimper that sounded like it came from a beaten puppy, Xena tore her gaze off of the foul thing and looked at the young girl hanging from manacles on the wall of the jail cell only a few feet from where the creature stood hunched over a sharpening wheel, sharpening a long and wicked looking knife.

The girl had blond hair, loosely braided into a long braid that hung to her waist and looked to be only about 15. Xena was relieved to see that the creature had so far spared her the terror of having her clothes ripped off of her and so far the girl looked to be unharmed, at least physically. The girl's eyes were huge and round and she was staring at the creature the way a mouse would stare at hawk. She had reached a state of fear so deep, she could not bring herself to scream any more and the only sounds she could make was the occasional whimper.

Xena, positioning herself so she could have a clean throw with her chakram at the creature without hitting the girl, motioned for Gabrielle to open the cell door and distract the creature.

Suddenly the creature straightened up from the sharpening wheel and turned toward the girl with the knife in its hand. "Time to enjoy your beauty my little one, before I enjoy your taste!"

Gabrielle thinking quickly, reached out and eased the old cell door open quietly and then backing up into the shadows and putting her hand over her mouth she called out softly, "Xena, where are you? I'm lost in this maze down here!"

The creature hearing Gabrielle and thinking that the muffled quality of her voice meant she was off in the distance, turned away from the girl. "Oh the pretty one! Is always so much more enjoyable skinning a woman alive when there is another to watch the fun!" The creature took several steps toward the cell door before pulling up in a stop and raising his hand with the knife. "Thought I closed that door?" It hissed.

Xena stood up from where she had been crouching in the dark and stepping into the light, yelled, "Skin this you rotting bag of pus!", and threw her chakram with all her might.

The chakram screamed through the open cell door and into the jail cell and hit the creature's hand holding the knife, severing it instantly. It then hit the far cell wall and bouncing off into the jail cell bars, it then ricocheted back the way it had came, slicing into the creature's neck before returning to Xena's hand.

The creature's head lolled to the right to rest on its shoulder from it's severed neck.

A thick greenish yellow liquid bubbled up from the open wound on the creature's neck and Gabrielle fond herself praying to every God and Goddess that she could think of that this was the end of the creature.

Gabrielle could feel her eyes try to bug out of her head as black oily looking tendrils shot out through the greenish yellow liquid on the creature's neck and attaching to the head pulled it back into place.

The creature rotated its head side to side for a moment and then looking at Xena said mildly, "ouch." Reaching down with the stump of its arm, it pointed the arm at the severed hand lying on the floor. The same black tendrils shot out and attaching to the hand pulled it back on with a disgusting slurping noise. The creature held the hand up and wiggled the fingers at them. Gabrielle could see over the creature's shoulder as Megan finally pushed past the limit of her endurance, fainted from the sheer horror of it all.

A deep laugh rumbled out of the creature's chest. "You can't hurt me!" He laughed at Xena.

"Maybe she can't but I sure as Tartarus can!" Gabrielle yelled as she leapt into the jail cell. Swinging her staff with all the power that terror and anger could give her, she whacked the creature in the middle of its stomach. Even being an undead creature, the blow was so great that the creature doubled over. Gabrielle without pause then spun on her heel and whacked the creature in the butt. The creature now off balance anyway, stumbled across the cell and hitting the jail cell bars hard had its head forced through the bars and found itself stuck.

Gabrielle watched the creature struggling to pull his head back in, gripping her staff tightly. Xena had to call her name twice before Gabrielle was able to look away. Looking up she saw that Xena was over by the unconscious young girl hanging on the wall.

"Give me a hand Gabrielle! That creature won't stay stuck for long! There is no time to pick the locks. Just hold her away from the wall and I will break the chains with my sword." Xena said as she drew her sword.

Quickly breaking the chains that were holding the girl, Xena sheathed her sword and then took the girl from Gabrielle and then hoisted the girl to her shoulder.

"What about the creature?" Gabrielle asked her as they made their way out of the cell.

"There is nothing we can do to stop it here. We will have to figure out some way to destroy the obelisk." Xena told Gabrielle as she grabbed a torch on the way out.

At the mention of the obelisk the creature let out a roar of anger and Gabrielle could hear as the bones on the creature's skull cracked as it jerked its head back into the cell. Gabrielle slammed the door to the cell but finding no way to lock it, she turned and with Xena carrying the girl, they raced out of the dungeon.

Gabrielle raced ahead of Xena to open secret doors and led the way for the burdened warrior princess. Racing up some stairs she opened a door and found her and Xena in a torch lighted intersection. Slamming the door behind Xena, Gabrielle leaned on the door and tried to get her breath back. "How is Megan, Xena?" She managed to get out between rasping breaths.

Xena breathing deeply herself said, "She is still out cold."

Gabrielle settled for nodding her head to show that she had heard Xena and allowed her head to tiredly droop forward. This action left Gabrielle looking at the floor and she noticed the footprints of bare feet in the dust of the floor. Turning her head she looked to the left down the corridor and noticed that several yards further it vanished into the darkness. "Xena, I think this is the way I came when I jumped out of Ares painting!"

Xena started to answer her when the door Gabrielle was leaning on jumped suddenly with the impact of the creature on the other side. The action nearly threw Gabrielle to the floor but she quickly recovered and threw her weight on the door to keep it shut.

Xena quickly but carefully placed Megan on the floor and then turned back to face Gabrielle. "When I give you the word I want you to step back and whip the door open." Xena told her.

The door Gabrielle was holding shut shuddered under another impact from the creature and Gabrielle nodded.

"1,2,3, all right Gabrielle now!" Xena shouted

Gabrielle quickly stepped to the side and opened the door. The creature that had been running to throw himself against the door flew through the open doorway. Xena leapt straight up into the air and lashed out with her feet catching the creature right in the face. The creature flew back through the doorway and to Gabrielle's hearing, it sounded like he fell down the stairs as well. Gabrielle closed the door and looked over to see Xena picking up Megan again. "Lead the way Gabrielle." Xena said with mock casualness.

Xena was handing down the young girl Megan to Gabrielle from the opening in the meeting room when the creature's voice echoed coldy through the passage behind them. "You may be able to keep me away from your more emotional friends but can you stop me from going after your more stable friends?" No more words followed just the horrible cackling of the creature's laughing.

Xena looked over to see Gabrielle trembling. "Come on. Let's get this girl back to her parents."

As Xena and Gabrielle reached the hallway that lead to the dinning room, they could see at the end of the hall a nervous Autolycus waiting at the door at the end. They could see as he turned and called out to the room behind him. "They're back and they have the girl with them!"

Xena reaching the room handed the child over to her father, the tall thin man named Melerin. Seeing the look of terror on the man's face at the stillness of his child, she quickly assured him that she had just passed out from fear.

Gabrielle paused at the doorway beside Autolycus. She could see that Hercules had positioned himself as guard at the doorway that lead to the kitchen. Iolaus was moving over to help Melerin and Cheara with their awakening and frightened daughter and Salmoneus was sitting in a chair in the corner with his head in his hands. "Salmoneus, are you okay?" She called out.

As Salmoneus raised his head to look at Gabrielle, two things were immediately obvious. One: he had been crying and two: he had the makings of a perfect black eye.

"Did Cheara hit you?" Gabrielle asked looking over at the very large woman standing next to her husband who was gently trying to comfort their daughter.

It was Autolycus who answered her. "No, it was Melerin. Cheara was just for going back to the kitchen and getting a clever and chopping him into little bits. It took both Hercules and Iolaus to hold her back."

Xena walking back leaned against the wall and folded her arms. "Looks like that hurts." She said casually.

"Not nearly as much as I deserve." Salmoneus said sadly. "Every time I think there is some hope for me becoming a better person, I mess it up with greed and someone get's hurt."

Gabrielle, who was still mad at Salmoneus for putting her off when she wanted to tell the servants earlier, couldn't take the sad and despondent look on Salmoneus's face. Dropping to her knees beside Salmoneus's chair she patted him on the arm. "It's not your fault. The servants would have wanted to leave as soon as they heard about the creature and they would not have been able to get off this mountain at night. We will protect them until morning when they can leave safely."

Autolycus looking at Xena asked. "Where did you find the girl?"

"The creature had her in the dungeon. Gabrielle and I rescued her before it could do anything more than scare her real bad." Xena replied.

Autolycus nodded his head and then asked nervously, "and the creature?"

Xena sighed, "We left it behind in the maze of secret passages. It really can't be killed Autolycus. I cut its head off and it just put it back on and kept coming!"

Autolycus swallowed deeply and then said, "Okay! Then what do we do?"

"At first light, you are going to escort the servants and Salmoneus and Gabrielle out of here while I and Hercules try to destroy the black stone in the mystery room." Xena replied with steel in her voice.

Gabrielle leapt to her feet. "I am not going anywhere without you Xena! If you are going to face that thing then so am I!"

"We are not going to argue about this Gabrielle! It is going to be a long night so try and get some sleep. We will take turns keeping guard." Xena replied giving Gabrielle the 'look'.

It was obvious that arguing about it was exactly what Gabrielle had in mind when she was distracted by Salmoneus asking in a small voice. "What do you think the creature will do tonight?"

"He yelled at us that since we were going to protect the emotional ones in our group, he was going to go after the saner ones." Gabrielle answered him and then turned back to argue with Xena.

She stopped instantly when she saw the tension in Xena's face.

"What!" Gabrielle asked nervously.

"He didn't say the saner ones! He said the more stable ones!" Xena said in a shaky voice.

Iolaus who had wandered over said, 'it's the same thing. Isn't it?"

Iolaus looked at Gabrielle and saw that she had turned white as a sheet. "The stables! The creature is going after Argo!" Gabrielle cried.

Gabrielle quickly turned and raced over to where the stable boy was sitting near Melerin and Cheara watching them comfort their child. "How do we find the stables? She asked him dropping to her knees to be at his level.

"I would have to show you the way. It twists and turns through storage rooms and corridors to get there." The boy answered nervously.

Gabrielle glanced up to see that Xena had moved to stand besides the chair. "Out of the question! You are going to stay here where it's safe. How do you get to the stables from the outside?"

"Through a wooden door in the wall in the back of the castle, I haven't locked the door yet. I was going to do it when I went back to check on the horses after dinner and then this all happened." The boy answered looking up at Xena.

"Horses?" Gabrielle asked him.

Salmoneus walking up answered her. "I have a horse of my own that I used to haul supplies up here. What are you going to do when you get to the stables?"

"We are going to get the horses and bring them back here so we can watch over them." Xena answered him.

"Bring the horses inside?" Salmoneus asked her.

"Yeah! You got a problem with that?" Xena asked turning to him with a cold glare.

"Um, no! Sounds like a great plan!" Salmoneus answered backing up.

Xena turned and started out of the room and noticed that Gabrielle had leapt to her feet and was right at her side. Xena thought about telling Gabrielle to stay there but she knew she would just argue and she did not have the time to waste with Argo in danger and the truth was, Xena wanted Gabrielle by her side. When she was apart from Gabrielle all Xena could do was worry about the young woman's safety and there was no one Xena trusted in fight more than Gabrielle.

Reaching the front door and opening it wide they felt the icy blast of wind that was whipping through the valley.

"I wish I had thought of grabbing my cloak from the saddlebags in our room when I had the chance." Gabrielle muttered to herself as she followed Xena around the edge of the castle wall.

Finding the wooden door on the back side of the castle proved to be not very difficult at all with a full moon's light to guide them. Xena motioned Gabrielle to stay to the side and jerking on the door, opened it quick. Sticking her head inside quickly Xena took a quick look around. There were lighted lanterns hanging high from the ceiling over each of the stalls and Xena breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the nearest stall to the door held a nervous looking Argo.

Xena motioned for Gabrielle to enter and they both made their way cautiously inside the stable.

Gabrielle as scared as she was, still noted with approval the layout of the interior of the stable. There was a large center path leading between the stalls, with stalls on either side. The stalls were low enough that the horses could look over the sides but high enough to keep them from leaping over them and each one was securely fastened with a wooden door. All in all, it was clean and airy. "Better than some taverns we have stayed in." Gabrielle said out loud.

Xena looking around could not help but smile and nod her head.

Rushing over to Argo's stall she patted Argo on her head as the horse whinnied a greeting.

"I wonder where the boy put Argo's saddle and bridle? I would like her ready to leave quickly." Xena said as she continued to pet Argo's side.

"You find Argo's saddle and bridle and I will go and get Salmoneus's horse." Gabrielle said as she made to search the other stalls.

"Gabrielle! Be careful! The creature may not be here yet but it maybe soon." Xena called after her.

Gabrielle with a serious look on her face nodded.

Gabrielle found that the stall doors were too high for her to look inside so she took to standing in the center of the aisle and pushing them open with her staff to look inside. She made her way half way down the large stable when she saw a horse's head peaking over one of the sides of a stall near the back. "Trust the horse to be in a stall in the back and not in the front of this stable." She thought to herself.

Making her way toward the horse, Gabrielle began talking in a voice meant to soothe the animal. She reached the door to the stall and then paused. The horse's head had not moved at all and she had not heard it make a single sound. She could see the eyes of the horse in the lantern light and she could swear that they had not even blinked. With a sinking feeling of dread, Gabrielle placed her staff on the stall's door and pushed.

The severed horse's head being jarred by the door's opening fell from where it had been wedged on the stall's side and fell to land in the opening of the stall with a wet splat. Gabrielle opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out, she was so horrified. Through the open stall door she could see that the poor animal had been hacked apart and various parts of its organs decorated the sides of the blood slicked stall.

Gabrielle whirled around to look behind her and pushed the door to the opposite stall open with her staff but when all it revealed was a plain clean stall she turned quickly to check the path through between the stalls. Finding nothing she turned back to face the stall where the horse's body lay. Taking a deep breath she tried once again to get her paralyzed throat muscles to work. "XENA! XENA!" She finally managed to scream.

Xena who had searched the entire front of the stables without finding Argo's bridle or saddle, heard Gabrielle's scream and raced back to find her standing at a open stall door. Reaching the stall, Xena felt her eye's widen in shock. Xena had been one of Greece's worst warlords and she had seen more battlefields than she wanted to admit. Horses got killed in battle as much as the men who rode them but even Xena had never seen such cruelty done to an innocent horse. "Gabrielle?" Xena asked her gently and touched her on the shoulder. As soon as Xena touched her, Gabrielle spun on her heels with her eyes wide open in terror and dropping her staff she grabbed hold of Xena in a fierce hug. "Xena, I really want to get out of here now!" Gabrielle sobbed into Xena's shoulder.

Xena looking over Gabrielle's shoulder could see that hanging on the far wall was Argo's bridle and sitting on a shelf below it was Argo's saddle.

"We are going to get out of here Gabrielle and go back to the others. I want you to go and wait with Argo. I see her saddle and I am going to get it." Xena whispered to her as she stroke Gabrielle's hair.

Gabrielle jerked back but still hung on to Xena's arm. "Leave the saddle! We can come back for it later!"

"I need that saddle Gabrielle. If something happens to me, I want you to take Argo and ride out of here but you are not an experienced enough rider to ride Argo without a saddle or bridle. I will be careful." Xena told Gabrielle gently.

Xena watched as Gabrielle nervously made her way back to the front where Argo waited. Xena waited until she saw Gabrielle enter the stall and heard Argo's greeting whinny, before she turned and made her way to Argo's saddle at the back of the stable.

Xena approached the shelf cautiously and using her sword she prodded the saddle gently, worried that the creature might have bobby trapped the saddle in some way.

As Gabrielle entered Argo's stall and Argo whinnied at her, Gabrielle broke down and crying she dropped her staff and rushed over and hugged the horse's neck. "Argo! Argo! I don't know what me and Xena would have done if that had been you!" She cried into Argo's mane.

Argo was not sure what was wrong with the chattering young woman who traveled with her and her mistress Xena but she could tell that she was upset.

"I want to get out of here!" Gabrielle continued to sob.

Argo thought to herself that that made two of them, Argo did not know what had happened to that horse that had been screaming a little while ago and then was silent all of sudden but she was sure that it could not have been good.

As Gabrielle kept sobbing and stroking Argo's neck, which Argo thought felt really good, Argo noticed that the door to the stall across from them was opening slowly. Argo perking up her ears and raising her head slightly watched as the creature eased the door open silently and started creeping toward Gabrielle's back. Argo whinnied at Gabrielle to let her know that someone was sneaking up on her but Gabrielle still lost in the memories of what had happened to that poor horse, did not notice.

The creature licked it lips and moved a little closer to the young blonde's back. He had wanted to take his time with this one and enjoy her screams of pain but he would settle for quickly cutting her throat. Looking down the path between the stalls, he saw that Xena was still examining the saddle carefully looking for traps. If he cut the pretty one's neck quickly enough maybe he could cut her head off and take it with him, the creature thought moving another step closer.

Argo now really worried for Gabrielle's safety, whinnied loudly and bucked a little in Gabrielle's arms. Gabrielle breaking free from her memories, dropped her hug and stepped a little away from Argo, bringing her even closer to the creature who was now completely in the stall with them. "Argo? What is it?" Gabrielle asked the horse.

Argo whinnied once real loudly and then reared back up on her hind legs. Gabrielle instinctively ducked under the horse's front legs and rolled under her. Argo lashed out with her front hooves and catching the creature by surprise, in the chest knocking him flying out of the stall.

Xena who had finally decided that the saddle and bridle were safe, was on her way with them when she heard Argo's warning whinny. Putting on a burst of speed she managed to get within several yards when she saw the creature coming flying out of Argo's stall backwards. Xena dropping the saddle reached the front stalls in just enough time to see the creature disappearing through a secret door in the stall opposite from Argo's.

Xena didn't even think twice about going after him. Not when she did not know what had happened to Gabrielle! So letting him get away she turned and rushed across the corridor to Argo's stall. "Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Where are you?" Xena screamed only to relax a little when she saw Gabrielle tear stained face peek up at her from under Argo. "Can we go now?" Gabrielle asked quietly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Terror at the Hotel Salmoneus.**  
Chapter 6

Iolaus was at guard on the doorway when Xena lead Argo and a very subdued Gabrielle in. He watched as Xena lead Argo to a far corner of the room near the fireplace and left her there. He noticed that Gabrielle pulled a chair away from the table and placed it beside Argo; she leaned on Argo's side and kept petting Argo's side over and over again.

Argo glanced back at the small woman and gave a little whinny but Iolaus noticed that Argo did not move away from her.

Salmoneus, who had been dozing, woke up when he heard Argo's whinny.

He looked around and then called out quietly to Xena. "Where is my horse?"

Iolaus who had been still watching Gabrielle's somber mood, saw her shudder violently and then lay her head on Argo's side as though she was trying to hear her heartbeat.

Xena glancing around and seeing that the servants were all asleep, quietly said, "The creature got there before us Salmoneus. I'm sorry. Your horse is dead."

Salmoneus bowed his head sadly. "He was a good horse, carried all my supplies up here without once complaining or causing problems. How did the creature kill him?" Xena sharply glanced to where Gabrielle was and saw her shaking as though she was cold but Xena knew it was not the cold bothering her.

"Let's just say it was really messy and leave it at that. Okay?" Xena said quietly.

"It will be hard to tell Termuras there." Salmoneus said nodding his head to where the stable boy was laying on a cleared part of the table curled into a ball, asleep. "The boy was real fond of that horse."

Xena walked over and placing a hand on Salmoneus' shoulder, "try to get some sleep Salmoneus. At first light you and Autolycus are going to get these people out of here to safety while Hercules, Iolaus and I take care of this creature once and for all."

Hearing a sob come from Gabrielle's direction, Xena quickly crossed to where she was and dropped to her knees beside Gabrielle's chair.

Gabrielle turned eyes that were bright with tears to Xena. "Please don't make me leave with them tomorrow! If you are going to face that creature again, I want to be by your side!"

"Gabrielle, don't you understand? If something were to happen to you tomorrow, I don't think that I could go on!" Xena said reaching out and caressing Gabrielle's face with one hand.

"And you think that I can? I don't want to have to wait outside, wondering if you are going to live or die inside here without me!" Gabrielle said with her voice thick with unexpressed emotion. "And why is Iolaus staying behind and I have to leave? You feel that you can trust his abilities more in a fight than me?" Gabrielle asked quietly, bowing her head.

Xena with her hand under Gabrielle's chin raised her face to look at her gently. "Don't you ever say that again Gabrielle! I trust you in a fight with my life. You have come a long ways. You are as good as anybody in a fight under normal conditions. But this creature is far from normal."

"All the more reason for me to be by your side while you are fighting it!" Gabrielle said.

Xena started to shake her head and stand up but stopped when Gabrielle grabbed her hand that was still on Gabrielle's face and turning it placed a kiss on the palm. "Please Xena! Don't send me away!"

Xena tried to harden her heart and do what she thought was right but the look in Gabrielle's eyes caused all her defenses to crumble into dust. "Tomorrow when we attack that black stone, I expect that the creature will go into a rage. You promise me that you will not try and fight him yourself but leave him to me and Hercules?" Xena asked, her own voice thick with emotions.

Gabrielle not trusting her voice just nodded.

"And Gabrielle? Please be careful tomorrow!" Xena said as she tried to stand up but was stopped again by Gabrielle's hand on hers. Xena looked back into Gabrielle's eyes.

"Please, you also be careful tomorrow." Gabrielle quiet voice said.

Iolaus after judging the late time by the candles burning walked over to where Autolycus sat in a chair sleeping. He had barely placed his hand on the 'King of Thieves' shoulder, when Autolycus eyes snapped open. "Your turn for watch." Iolaus told him quietly.

Autolycus nodded and started toward the door. Hearing a slight noise he glanced back in Gabrielle's direction and saw her body sitting in the chair leaning against Argo give a twitch and heard her whimper in her sleep.

"Probably having a nightmare and no wonder." He thought to himself.

Gabrielle found herself wandering around a strange passageway with no idea how or why she was there. Hearing a horse's scream, Gabrielle put on a burst of speed and reached a wooden door at the end of the passage. Throwing open the door wide, Gabrielle found herself in a bright lighted white room and at the center of the room, there lay Argo. She had been sliced apart and there were streams of blood flowing across the floor toward her.

"Argo no!" Gabrielle screamed and ran to the horse's side. Gabrielle tried to figure out what she could do for the horse when she heard a rough whisper coming from one of the walls of the room. "Gabrielle!"

Jerking her head up Gabrielle looked in the direction and saw Xena hanging from the wall. Xena had been split open like Argo, from the base of her throat to the bottom of her stomach. Gabrielle could see Xena's organs hanging precariously, about to fall out of her body.

"NO!" Gabrielle screamed and then sensing someone beside her, looked over and saw the creature lying on the floor casually propped up on Argo's head. "Poor Gabrielle! Xena's dying and you never had a chance to tell her how you really felt about her!"

Gabrielle with a ragged gasp woke up and grabbed her staff. Breathing heavily, she looked around and saw that everyone except Autolycus and Hercules was still asleep. Shaking slightly, Gabrielle got to her feet and walked over to where Hercules was still keeping guard at the kitchen doorway.

"Go get some sleep Hercules. I'll keep watch for a while." She told him quietly.

"That's okay. I don't need much sleep. Go back to sleep Gabrielle." Hercules told her gently.

"I don't think I will need to worry about sleeping for a long time after this." Gabrielle told him. "You are going to need your strength tomorrow. Go ahead and get some sleep." Gabrielle insisted.

Hercules nodded and pulled a chair out and leaning back went to sleep.

Xena woke up instantly and the first place she looked was the empty chair beside Argo where Gabrielle had been sleeping. Quickly scanning the room, she relaxed when she saw Gabrielle standing at the doorway to the kitchen on guard. Getting to her feet she made her way over to where Autolycus was standing at the other doorway. "What time is it?" She asked.

"Dawn or a little earlier, can't really tell this far into the castle." Autolycus said rubbing his eyes.

"Probably a little before dawn, I usually wake about that time." Xena nodded her head to where Gabrielle was standing with her back to them, watching the hallway into the kitchen. "How long has Gabrielle been keeping watch?"

"She awoke a little after I took over from Iolaus. She insisted that Hercules should get some sleep and has been standing watch since then." Autolycus told her glancing back to where Gabrielle stood in the other doorway.

Xena nodded her head at him and then started across the room to stand at Gabrielle's side.

"Did you get any sleep at all Gabrielle?" She asked the alert young woman who was studying the hallway.

"A little." Gabrielle admitted.

"We will be getting the servants awake and moving them out soon and then we will see about the black stone. Do you think that you are up to it?" Xena asked her studying her profile.

Gabrielle turned slightly to look Xena in the eyes. "I'll be ready!" She said determinedly.

Hercules, Iolaus, Xena and Gabrielle stood at the doorway to the castle and watched as Salmoneus and Autolycus lead the servants several yards away from the castle. Autolycus held the leads to Argo's bridle and it was more than a little evident that the horse wanted to be with Xena. It kept looking back and pulling on the leads until Xena shouted to her to behave.

"We will wait here until you come out, Xena!" Autolycus shouted to her.

"You wait here until the sun is directly overhead and then you lead these people out of this valley. If we are not out of there by that time, we won't be coming out and under no circumstances are you or anyone else to enter here after us. I don't think that the creature will leave the castle, I think that it has to stay near the stone or it would have left the castle a long time ago but I maybe wrong. So if we don't come out you are to lead these people to safety and find someway to seal this valley off so no one else becomes the creature's victims." Xena turned and glancing down at Gabrielle she asked in a low voice that only Gabrielle could hear. "Are you sure you won't stay out here with them?"

"I'm sure!" Gabrielle said back quietly, taking a firm grip on her staff.

Xena glanced at Hercules and Iolaus. "Let's do it then!" Xena pulled her sword and then turned and entered the castle with Gabrielle at her back followed by Hercules and then Iolaus.

Reaching the 'mystery room' they found the doors wide open as if it was awaiting them.

"Okay, this stone is supposed to be the hardest material Ares could find so we will let Hercules see if he can break it first." Xena said as she entered. Looking back she was shocked to see a glazed look in Hercules' face and watched as he walked over to a candlestick and started tugging at it.

Iolaus with a worried look on his face rushed to his friend's side and started tugging on his arms trying to get him to let loose of the candlestick.

Gabrielle who was watching the room carefully was the first to see the room to the library open slowly. "Xena!"

Xena whipped around to see the creature step out of the library carrying a long wicked looking sword. The creature ignored her for a moment and leered at Gabrielle.

"I am so glad that I did not manage to kill you pretty one in the stables. Now I will be able to take my time and really enjoy myself. You should be able to last for weeks before you die!"

Xena with a snarl whipped her chakram up and hurled it at him with a growl. The creature did not even try to avoid the chakram but let it him in the chest. The chakram barely slowed as it hit the creature and blasted out of his back, to hit a wall and bouncing off to land near Gabrielle.

The creature glanced down at its ruined chest and watched as its black blood oozed out a little and then sealed off the wound. "Now it's time to see if you are as good with a sword as I was." The creature snarled and then rushed to attack Xena.

Gabrielle watched as Xena blocked the creature's first blow with her sword but failed to stop its kick to her stomach knocking the wind out of her.

Xena recovering slammed her sword into the creature's chest and then had the sword jerked out of her hand as the creature twisted suddenly to the side. The creature backhanded Xena violently and Xena flew back to slam into a wall and slumped to the floor. The creature looked at the sword in his chest for a moment and then pulled it out. The sword made a disgusting slurping noise as it pulled out of the black oozing mess that was the creature's chest. "You will die quickly but don't worry; your pretty little friend will die very slowly!" The creature said as he dropped his sword and raised Xena's above his head.

Gabrielle looked around in panic. Iolaus was still trying to pull Hercules' hands off of the candle and Hercules was totally in the power of the candles and could not help. Gabrielle's eyes fell on the chakram lying on the floor near her. Picking it up she screamed at the creature as she threw it. Unfortunately, Gabrielle had no experience in throwing the chakram and the creature turning to look at her when she screamed, laughed as the chakram missed him by almost 4 feet. The chakram hit the wall and bouncing off flew a wobbly flight across the room and sliced cleanly through one of the flaring candles in the room. It then hit another wall and landed on the floor about 3 feet from Gabrielle. The sliced candle flared brightly, the flame almost reaching the ceiling of the room and then went out. As the candle went out, Gabrielle could hear a loud noise like the cracking of thick ice on a pond and looking over at the black stone she saw that the side that had been facing the candle was heavily cracked. The creature screamed and clutched at its chest. Xena taking advantage of the creature's momentary distraction grabbed the creature's sword that was lying on the floor near her and ran over to one of the candles and swung it with all her strength. The sword as soon as it hit the candle exploded into pieces not even scratching the wax surface of the candle. Xena looked at the hilt in her hand for a moment before dropping it and then turning, had to fight for her life once again as the creature ran across the room and crashed into her.

Gabrielle stunned, watched Xena and the creature fight for a moment and then shaking herself out of it, she ran across to the chakram and picking it up she ran over to the nearest candle to her. Not risking throwing the chakram again, she swung the chakram around with her hand and watched as it sliced through another candle with no resistance. The candle flared brightly like the first one and then went out. Another loud cracking noise announced that the stone had once again cracked.

The creature who had managed to get his hands locked Xena's throat fell back with a scream as the candle went out.

Gabrielle did not even pause to watch the candle but ran around the stone to the next nearest candle and without even slowing this time she cut it with the chakram as she ran by.

The creature finally took his eyes off of Xena and turning started to scramble after Gabrielle.

Gabrielle did not slow or even look back as she heard the creature chasing her. Reaching the last candle, the one Hercules was trying to pull out of its holder. She slashed the candle just below Hercules' hands. The candle flared up and then with a soft plop came off in Hercules' hands. The force that Hercules had been exerting on the candle caused him and Iolaus to stagger back a few feet as the candle came off in his hands.

Gabrielle stood watching, afraid that when she had cut that last candle it might have hurt Hercules in some way. Suddenly she felt the creature grab her around the waist and pull her toward him. "If I go to Tartarus, you go with me!" The creature foul breath hissed into her ear.

Gabrielle looking back and up at the creature let out a scream.

The creature had its black blood oozing from hundreds of cuts and wounds all over it. As Gabrielle watched its head wobbled slightly as if it was about to fall off, before the black tendrils from its body pulled it back on.

"Get your hands off of my friend!" Xena's voice growled at the creature.

Xena then swung her sword that she had picked up from the floor where the creature had dropped it and cleanly cut the arm that was holding Gabrielle off. Gabrielle rushed over to Xena's side as soon as she was free.

The creature looked at its severed arm and then laughed at Xena. "You cannot stop me! I will live forever!"

"I don't think so!" The creature turned to look at Hercules who had spoken, just in time to catch Hercules' fist in his face. The creature flew back to land on the black stone and as soon as he hit it, the stone blew apart in pieces.

The creature staggered to his feet and in a clear voice yelled, "free at last!" and then to Gabrielle's horror he started to slowly fall to pieces. First his hand that Xena had cut off earlier with the chakram, fell to the floor. Dissolving into black goo almost before it could hit the floor. To be quickly followed by his head. The body continued to dissolve into a black pudding like mixture. The smell that suddenly filled the room was so horrible and disgusting that all four friends turned and fled the room.

Gabrielle stopped just outside the room and started to go back in. "My staff! I left it in there!"

Xena grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the door. 'We'll get it later!"

"Gabrielle nodded her head and then looking down, realized that she still had Xena's chakram in her hand. "Here is your chakram back Xena."

"Let's go and tell Autolycus and Salmoneus that the creature is dead." Xena said taking the chakram back and placing it at her side.

"Um Xena? Do you think that Anillus will be punished for the things his body did while his soul was trapped in the stone?" Gabrielle asked Xena sadly.

Xena paused in her steps and looked down at Gabrielle and smiling shook her head slightly.

After all that Gabrielle had been through, she still could feel sorry for and wonder about Anillus's state of his soul.

After telling Salmoneus that the creature was dead, Salmoneus was all for cleaning out the castle and still trying to make it into a hotel. The servants were very difficult to convince to stay on in a place where such horrors had taken place but after Salmoneus promised to raise their wages and got Hercules and Xena to promise to look over all the rooms in the castle, they finally agreed to stay.

Hercules and Xena took care of the unpleasant task of clearing out the stable and the scroll library and Autolycus and Iolaus helped to clean out the dungeon after Gabrielle showed them the way to it.

Hercules, Salmoneus and Autolycus were stunned by how large the castle complex was underground. They found barracks rooms that could have held over a thousand troops. Armories, their weapons long ago rusted away in racks waiting for warriors who would never claim them. Hercules found hidden stables underground that had secret entrances near the surface far away from the walls of the castle. Finding the skeletal remains of horses with gnaw marks on the bones, Hercules quietly cleaned out the stables and decided not to tell the others of his discovery of the horse remains.

Autolycus and Salmoneus were highly pleased when while searching the secret passages and rooms found a treasury room that had been undisturbed and was filled with the tribute that Annillus had gathered over a 100 years ago.

After Xena flatly refused to let Gabrielle help with the cleaning of the stables or the mystery room, Gabrielle decided to stay with the room with the waterbed, after having Autolycus destroy the opening mechanism that worked the secret mirror door. She spent most of the afternoon and evening working on a project of her own while the rest helped Salmoneus with the castle work.

Xena after finishing her grim tasks and cleaning up outside walked in to the kitchen and looked at the food that Melerin and Cheara were cooking. "Hmm smells good!" Xena said lifting a lid on a pot.

Cheara slapped her hand with a spoon and said, "yes but that is for the men folk. Your golden haired young friend came down and made up some food for you and her. She said for me to tell you that she will be serving you dinner upstairs in the bedroom." Cheara said with a twinkle in her eye.

Xena eyed the huge woman with a frown. "I don't know what you think is going on between me and Gabrielle but we are just good friends."

Cheara grabbed Xena by the arm and pulled her to one side away from where Melerin continued to work. "It's not what I think, it is what I know. Do you find it odd that two people like me and Melerin got together? I am as big as a house and he is so thin he blows away in a wind. We got together because we are soul mates. He completes what is missing in me. Can you look me in the eye and tell me that it is not the same for you and Gabrielle?" Cheara said with her hands on her hips.

Xena opened her mouth to answer but found she couldn't. Feeling a blush come over her face she just said, "if Gabrielle has dinner waiting for me I better not leave her waiting." She started to walk off but felt Cheara's hand on her arm again. "And you better not leave her waiting much longer before you tell her how you feel about her, either."

Xena found herself waiting outside the door to the room she was sharing with Gabrielle, feeling like some crush stricken teenager. Her hands were actually sweating, for Aphrodite's sake! Xena wiped her hands on her leathers and took a deep breath. Cheara was wrong. Wasn't she? Xena knew how she felt about Gabrielle, it was love plain and simple but Gabrielle didn't feel that way. Did she?

Xena took another deep breath and reached for the doorknob only to stop and look at the door again. Feeling foolish but still doing it anyway, Xena reached up and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Came Gabrielle's voice from the other side.

'It's me Gabrielle. Can I come in?" Xena asked.

"Of course. This is your room too." Xena wondered at the quivering in Gabrielle's voice and taking yet another deep breath, she reached out and turned the doorknob and pushed the door open.

Xena noticed as she entered that there were candles everywhere giving the room a soft glow. On every desk or chest in the room there were vases of roses. Xena recalled hearing Gabrielle casually asking Salmoneus where he got the roses that were hanging outside in baskets earlier that day. Salmoneus had told her that he had a small green house in the castle where Melerin grew the flowers.

Sitting in the middle of the floor was one of Salmoneus's silk sheets and sitting on the sheet were plates of cheese, bread and a bowl of cherries. Off to one side there were several skins filled with good strong port wine, Xena found pulling the cork and smelling them. Xena looking around did not see Gabrielle right off. Finally looking at the big waterbed she saw a black silk covered mound moving slowly.

"Gabrielle?" Xena asked moving closer to the bed.

Gabrielle rose up a little in the bed and Xena could see her golden red hair.

"Were you taking a nap?" Xena asked in a surprised voice.

"Not exactly. More like I was lying down because I am so nervous that I can't stand up." Gabrielle voice quivered.

Xena took a deep gulp and asked, "Why?"

"This is why!" Gabrielle said as she sat up on the bed.

As she sat up, the black silk sheet slowly slid off of her body. When the sheet reached her chest and continued to slide down, Xena quickly lost her breath as she saw that Gabrielle was nude.

"I am so afraid that what I am going to say and what I am doing is going to ruin our friendship but I can't go on like we have been." Gabrielle took a deep gulp of air and then said in a rush. "I am in love with you Xena! I don't mean like a friend or like a sister. I mean that I want to be with you forever! I want to feel your hands on my body and make love to you!" Gabrielle finishing the speech that she had agonized over all day long quickly covered her face with her hands too afraid of Xena's reaction to look at her.

Gabrielle waiting to hear what Xena would say to her declaration could only hear sounds of Xena moving around and she feared that Xena was gathering her stuff up to leave but she still could not bring herself to remove her hands and watch Xena walk out of her life forever. Feeling Xena sitting down gently on the bed, Gabrielle moved two of her fingers and peeked out nervously at Xena. What she saw was that Xena had removed her armor and her leathers and was sitting on the bed opposite of her totally nude.

"I love you too Gabrielle. Not like a friend or a sister but in that I want to spend the rest of my life with you." Xena said as she reached out took Gabrielle's hands away from her face and kissed the palms gently.

Downstairs, Autolycus, Iolaus, Salmoneus and Hercules was sitting down to dinner.

"Where are Xena and Gabrielle? Salmoneus asked Cheara as she was serving the food.

"They were both very tired and decided to grab a bite in their room and call it a night." Cheara answered Salmoneus.

Autolycus looked up at her with his eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face. He opened his mouth to say something but the glare he got from the formidable looking woman made him change his mind. He settled for looking over at Salmoneus and said, "You know Sal, this hotel idea for couples just might work after all."

The End! 


End file.
